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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25645348">What Happened?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything'>IRegretNothingAndEverything</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tommy is of the stars, Benrey of the void, Bubby of the tube, and Coomer of the enhanced. Gordon? Gordon's along for the ride. [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Also casual mention of Tommy just... disappearing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Attempted Murder, Benrey is human-adjacent, Black Mesa Sweet Voice, Bubby Chews On Things He Shouldn't, Canon amputation, Family Problems, Gen, Gordon doesn't get his arm back after this cause they didn't 'finish the game right', Gore, Hurt/Comfort, IE During the final battle they don't kill benrey, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury, Near Death Experiences, Pancake VS Waffle debate, Panic Attacks, Pre-Relationship, Shower Arguments, So GMan didn't 'fix' it, Sweet Voice, Tube Bubby, a lil bit of - Freeform, a lot of syrup, breakdowns, bubby doesn't know trans people exist, but far enough off that he has weird ideas about everything, but he did take the gun hand so that's rude of him, despite dating one, despite it not being black mesa that put him back in, he has some just not enough y'know?, he thought they were friends and is just realizing 'oh i fucked up', if Bubby is offering emotional advice/support you know shit just went down, im so sorry, lets add that tag there, on Bubby's part, pre relationship but because this is no longer a one shot, that violence this is just, the OC is just Gordon's ex wife who is taking care of Joshua btw, the bubby with no skin thing, they put me back in my tube can't have shit in black mesa, why have I not tagged that until now?, yankee with no brim but it's bubby with no skin-</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:09:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,464</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25645348</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Benrey realizes that Gordon didn't think they were friends this entire time. This changes the course of the battle completely.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bubby/Dr. Coomer, Pre Benrey/Gordon Freeman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tommy is of the stars, Benrey of the void, Bubby of the tube, and Coomer of the enhanced. Gordon? Gordon's along for the ride. [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871698</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>551</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Key Enjoyed</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Final Battle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Got inspired by this animatic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VApRFWv2gUU </p><p>It's really good and I recommend it a lot! I'm actually really emotional over this entire thing and I have no clue why I'm so like !!! about it. </p><p>I sent like five paragraphs about that animatic to my Discord Group Chat so :/ </p><p>Also I know Benrey is kinda OOC but like... the guy just had a breakdown let him vibe bro</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“We destroyed the passports!” Gordon called from down, down by his feet, in the water. Benrey’s hands shook, staring down at his friends, confused and hurt. Gordon seemed to not care how much it hurt Benrey to have to fight him. Why didn’t Gordon seem at all upset about having to fight his friend? “Give up, Benrey!” </p><p>And Benrey began to understand. </p><p>Uninvited, tears formed in his eyes. Did Gordon actually hate him? This entire time, Benrey thought they were friends. They were so close, poking fun at one another, making jokes, and just being friends. Did... Did Gordon not see all of those jokes the same way? Was all of this for nothing? He tried so hard to be a good friend to Gordon, but, what if it was all for nothing. </p><p>“Why....” Benrey’s hands shook, and they came up to clamp over his ears, pressing his hands into the sides of his head as he felt his breathing get faster. He didn’t need to breathe, not really, but everything overwhelmed him and his once human body began to force it all to happen. His usually unbeating heart raced, his breath came out too fast, and Benrey almost collapsed forwards, only stopped by the distance knowledge that he would come down on top of who he had thought was his friends. </p><p>“Benrey?” Confusion filtered into Gordon’s voice, and Benrey took a few steps back, almost stumbling, just so he could fall forwards onto his knees without hurting anyone. Water splashed up a bit, sure, but it wouldn’t hurt them, he had never wanted to hurt them-</p><p>“We were such good friends... what happened?!” Benrey cried, curling forwards, hands pressing in on the sides of his head, tears finally becoming too much and spilling over, streaking down his dirty face, leaving stark tracks. Distantly, over the sound of the blood rushing through his ears, he could hear the others panicking. </p><p>He felt like he was destabilizing, like he was going to fall apart at any moment, and he suddenly understood what Gordon had meant, when he said that when the adrenaline left it felt like his body was going to crumble. Benrey felt like he was crumbling, how could Gordon have handled this. </p><p>Benrey had made fun of him for that, hadn’t he? He had made a comment. He could barely remember anymore, all the little things he had poked fun at over the course of this adventure, all the things he had said to Gordon, making fun of such little things, but had Gordon seem them as attacks? Had Benrey inadvertently hurt someone he had considered a friend? How badly? Had Benrey ruined something he thought of a close friendship? How in the world could he have not noticed that? </p><p>He felt like his chest was caving in, and each gasping breath only made it hurt more, he barely realized he was making some sort of noise, a keening whimper, and he squeezed his eyes shut, hoping that it would stop the tears flowing down his face without his permission but it did nothing but force more out, and he cried out, curling down into himself. </p><p>And he felt something small, barely there, press against the side of his face. </p><p>Benrey’s eyes flew open, and there Gordon was, pressing his hand to Benrey’s cheek, something he had done to all of them at some point, but it still hit him. Gordon stared up at him, over sized as he still was, and if Benrey was in any state of mind, he would have seen the realization filter through Gordon’s eyes. </p><p>“You... they were all well meant jokes, weren’t they?” Gordon asked softly, and Benrey sniffled, barely moving his head in a nod as not to dislodge Gordon’s hand, that small bit of pressure on his face, that felt like it was the only thing keeping him from floating off into oblivion and disappearing. “Benrey... I didn’t... realize.” </p><p>Benrey closed his eyes again, trying desperately to stop crying, but it didn’t work. Without really meaning to, Benrey was small again, still curled up in on himself, but he wasn’t so stupidly big. Maybe that would help make him feel normal again, but all it did was give Gordon the chance to wrap him up in his arms. </p><p>And Benrey clung back onto him, shaking. Distantly, he felt Tommy hit his left side, arms wrapping around his middle, and Bubby came up on his other side, dragged in by Coomer who wrapped them all up in his arms, surrounding him in all of them, bringing him into the fold and just holding on, holding him together so he didn’t fall apart completely. </p><p>What followed was strange. Once Benrey managed to calm down, he didn’t really feel like talking, as if he’d have to go back to being the bad guy, but Gordon didn’t let him. In fact, Gordon didn’t actually let him try. He just shifted, lifting him up with one arm and looked around at the others. A quick plan, and they were finding their way back to Black Mesa without having to defeat the final boss that Benrey had put himself as. </p><p>Tommy ended up calling in his dad, the suited man from before that Benrey remembered, Gman, he believed he was called, and Gman looked at the tear stained faces around him and sighed, before they were suddenly in a small apartment, that Tommy claimed was his own. Benrey didn’t really pay attention to that much, as Gman talked on and on about something or other, just clung tight to the HEV suit, still shaking. He wasn’t going to fall apart anymore, but he certainly wasn’t all together. Gordon didn’t seem all that put together either, and only put Benrey down-didn’t let go of him, not really, his hand holding onto Benrey’s shoulder tightly-in order to demand that this whole thing end here. No more battles, no end fight, just let them be. </p><p>Gman looked towards Benrey once, and Benrey felt himself fill with rage. He could have been the villain, Gman could have, and everything would have been okay, Benrey wouldn’t have had to break down in front of them. His hands shook, and Gman actually appeared shaken by this, and stepped back, nodding. He didn’t look at Benrey again as he told everyone that Black Mesa would be in contact with hush money, freed Gordon of both the HEV suit and his gun arm-though he didn’t give Gordon a replacement, just left him with a completely healed over stump, which Benrey found quite rude. How was he going to regrow a new one if his skin healed over everything?-and left. </p><p>Bubby and Coomer commandeered the guest bedroom, and Tommy offered his own to him and Gordon, but Gordon shook him off. It was Tommy’s home, and they were only going to stay a night before Gordon began to sort through everything that had happened and got back to his son. Benrey just stayed latched onto Gordon’s hand, saying nothing. He didn’t think his voice would work if he tried, though maybe his sweet voice would. He didn’t try that either though. Gordon didn’t actually understand it, and Benrey didn’t want to keep Tommy awake longer than he had to be. </p><p>Once Tommy-and by extension, Sunkist-were safely in Tommy’s bedroom, both doors to both bedrooms shut, Benrey turned, shifting to fling his helmet off onto the couch so he could more comfortably hide his face in Gordon’s chest. They were both a mess, but so was everyone else. None of them were in any sort of right mind to take a shower or a bath or even change, though only Tommy would have clothing and he was a tree. Nothing he had would fit any of the rest of them. </p><p>“Hey, Benrey, you’re alright.” He felt Gordon’s hand sweep through his hair, which was probably gross from so long under the helmet, but he didn’t care, not at this point, and not for a long time. </p><p>“We were friends right?” Benrey almost whimpered into Gordon’s chest, hands fisted into Gordon’s shirt in an effort to stop them from shaking, words tumbling out without direction, tinged with sweet voice. “I didn’t fuck it all up, I didn’t ruin this chance, right?” </p><p>Gordon sighed softly, shifting in order to sit more comfortably on the couch, Benrey ending up in his lap. “... No... you didn’t fuck it up completely. Sure I wish you’d stopped the guys when they cut off my arm, or maybe didn’t say a few things, but... You meant well. We were just on a different page the entire time.” </p><p>Benrey didn’t lift his head, trying to find some way to word his thoughts again, everything feeling jumbled and broken. As much as he hated it, he turned his head, sweet voice tumbling out of his mouth, colors filling the room in shades of relief and hope and love, and Benrey relaxed against him, calming himself down, emotions pouring out of him in shades. </p><p>Gordon watched the color and didn’t ask the questions of what it all meant, just let Benrey work it all out before trying to think of the words to say properly, the sweet voice hanging around them as nightlights. “Feel better?” </p><p>After a moment, Benrey nodded against his chest, but still said nothing, just wrapping his arms tightly around Gordon’s chest, closing his eyes tightly. He didn’t need to sleep, but he could, and god was he exhausted. He needed the reset. Gordon hummed softly, his hand coming up to push Benrey’s hair back, petting it down against his skull, scratching at his scalp. </p><p>“We’ll talk in the morning alright? Get this all straightened out.” Gordon yawned, and Benrey nodded against his chest again, closing his eyes. After a moment, he felt Gordon relax, his hand starting to slow, and Benrey clung onto him, letting himself drift off into a peace he had never really let himself feel.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Pancakes and Syrup</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had to cut this, it was getting super long, so there will be a chapter three of the actual talking, but like... oof. Benrey is in his feelings. I tried to get more of how he talks in, with the nicknames, but if it feels off or clunky, I'm gonna blame it on the face that Benrey is emo as shit right now and trying to force it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey drifted for awhile, his strange half-sleep the best he could actually accomplish with his whole just left of being human thing going on. He was distantly aware of everything going on, but it almost felt like a third party watching in rather than him being in the scene himself. </p><p>Sure, when Gordon woke up, he could feel him shift slightly, his hand moving through Benrey’s hair again, but it was just as distant, though it did make him smile. Sleeping against Gordon’s chest, Benrey didn’t actually move much, barely breathing, just enough to show he was alive. </p><p>Gordon had been woken up by Coomer and Bubby’s failed attempts at being quiet, trying to get into the kitchen to start breakfast. Gordon just smiled over at them, which gave Bubby the incentive to raise his voice back up to normal levels. Coomer tried to shush him, seeing as Benrey was still apparently asleep, and Tommy had yet to emerge from his room either, but Bubby just kept talking about pancakes as he walked into the kitchen. </p><p>Benrey didn’t pay too much attention to the argument about pancakes and waffles that followed. He felt Gordon’s hand moving in his hair, but he didn’t really pay much attention to what was going on, closing his eyes and floating, separated from everything. </p><p>He opened them again when he heard barking, and realized that Sunkist was attempting to jump up on the couch next to them. Upon failing that, Sunkist just pressed his head against Benrey’s back and sat next to the couch. Tommy was awake then, though Benrey still didn’t see him up. He might need to wake up soon, but... then he’d have to talk about everything. He didn’t know if he wanted to do that, and he frowned, wrapping his arms tightly around himself, causing him to hold tighter onto Gordon. </p><p>Gordon frowned down at him a moment, hooking his other around around him to hold him tighter in return, and Sunkist almost whimpered, pressing against his back again. God, he really didn’t want to have to explain everything. He was just... how could he have fucked up this badly? It was so simple, he pretended to be human all the time, he had friends but... </p><p>What if he had fucked it up with all of them? Every person he thought was a friend he had successfully made in his efforts to look and sound more human all hated him? </p><p>Without his consent, sweet voice began to tumble from his mouth, where he was pressed against Gordon’s chest, fear and worry floating up around the ceiling as more and more began to slip free the more Benrey worked himself up. Gordon noticed, sitting up a bit, gently trying to wake him, and Benrey... let him. </p><p>His eyes opened, just having one form again, and he closed them again quickly, just to hide his face in Gordon’s chest and force all the emotions in the sweet voice back down, tears streaking down his face. </p><p>“Tommy what do they mean?” He hears Gordon ask, but he doesn’t hear Tommy’s response. He knows Tommy had to have responded, as Gordon holds him all the tighter, and Benrey shrinks himself just a bit to fit better into Gordon’s arms, safer there than he had ever had been. “I’ve got you, you’re okay Benrey...” </p><p>He feel Sunkist leave as he calms down, apparently trusting Gordon to calm him down the rest of the way. Benrey slowly opens his eyes, the shapes behind his eyes dissipating as the pressure goes away. The room is still lit up by his sweet voice, but as the emotions calm down, the sweet voice disappears, and the only light becomes the sun filtering into the room from between the half drawn curtains. Benrey focuses on them. They look handmade. </p><p>“Benrey?” He looks up at the sound of his name, and Gordon gives a small smile, as if trying to hide the worry floating in his eyes. Benrey can almost see the color of it behind Gordon’s brown, and he cracks a smile himself. “Wanna get up so we can eat?” </p><p>Benrey doesn’t move, just watching as the sweet voice hidden in everyone floats around behind Gordon’s eyes. For a moment, he expects to see annoyance brighten everything up, but no, Gordon’s sweet voice stays that consistent worry-tone, and Benrey nods slowly, lowering his head onto Gordon’s chest slowly. Gordon doesn’t prod him, and, after a moment, he finds his legs again and pushes himself up, standing shorter than normal, arms around his chest. </p><p>They shuffle into the kitchen, and Coomer greets them with his normal, bright “Hello Gordon!” and Benrey smiles, teeth tinged with held back sweet voice, light shining from his mouth, so he ducks his head again and hides it. Tommy is the only one who can translate it, but even then, Benrey doesn’t want them all to know his emotions when even he doesn’t understand them all. </p><p>“Benrey?” He looks up at his name again. Gordon is watching him, sweet voice slightly amused now, but mostly worried. He should have payed attention to that color more often in Black Mesa. Maybe this would have all been avoided if he had just looked. </p><p>Color bubbled out of his lips, and he covered his mouth with one hand looking away quickly. </p><p>“Hey, it’s alright! Coomer just wanted to know what you wanted.” </p><p>“Pancakes are the right choice here, Benrey!” Coomer says from the side, voice still just as loud, but soft in his own way.</p><p>“Don’t listen to him, waffles are better.” Bubby grumbles, and Benrey finds himself despite himself. </p><p>“Uh, same... same thing, just different shapes. One of each.” Benrey grins at the outraged look on Bubby’s face, but he hears Gordon laugh besides him, so he counts it as a win, letting himself be herded over to the table to sit. Tommy is on one side of him, and Gordon the other. Sunkist lays at their feet, Benrey assumes for Tommy, but when Benrey sits, Sunkist sits up and puts her big head on his lap. Benrey stares down at him ignoring the sweet voice bubbling out of the corner of his mouth. </p><p>Slowly, Benrey puts a hand on Sunkist’s head, and she looks up at him, tongue lolling out of her mouth, and she turns her head to lick his hand. Benrey smiles down at her, slowly petting down her head, letting his hand be covered in doggy slobber as he did. The colors floating about the ceiling changed, slowly, though there still was the occasional fear bubble floating around the colors of love and contentment. </p><p>A plate is set down in front of him, and he looks up, watching as Coomer’s extendo-arm retracts back to a normal size, and when he looks at the plate, there’s a waffle stacked on top of a pancake sitting there, and a bottle of syrup is set down soon after. Gordon and Tommy’s plates are set down soon after-apparently agreeing with Bubby and Coomer respectively on which is better-and Coomer balances his and Bubby’s plates, along with Bubby, as he walks over to the table. </p><p>Benrey doesn’t do anything at first, but slowly, he sits up, drying his hand on his pants, where Sunkist doesn’t lick his hand again because she’s the perfect dog, and he drenches his food in syrup, just covers it, taking the time to fill each cell on his waffle with syrup, watching as it pools on the plate and soaks through the batter. </p><p>“Jeez...” Gordon laughs slightly, struggling a bit with his fork in his left hand, though Coomer seemed to have taken this into account and precut his waffles for him, so he could just stab. Benrey didn’t want to watch him struggle, so he found another reason to look forwards to when Gordon’s right arm grew back. He didn’t like watching his friends struggle with anything major... if they were his friends still... </p><p>He looked away, smiling down at his syrupy mess of a plate, and passed the syrup to Tommy, who grinned at him pouring the same, if not more, syrup over his pancakes. </p><p>“Okay, am I the only person here who likes a normal amount of syrup?” Gordon asked, as Bubby started eating his without a single drop of syrup, and Coomer began the same charade as Benrey and Tommy did, soaking his in syrup. </p><p>“This is... the uh, the normal amount, Cringeman.” Benrey mumbled at him, stabbing at his food to cut it into smaller bites, watching the syrup drip down the sides of his stack, pooling on the plate. He glanced over at Gordon, catching his eyes carefully, staring past them to the sweet voice. </p><p>Gordon shook his head slightly before Benrey could get a good look at it, though he didn’t notice anything angry hidden there. “You guys are insane, though, really, I’ve known that this entire time.” </p><p>Benrey watched quietly as the syrup was passed to Bubby, who just pushed it along to Gordon. Gordon stared at it for a moment, glancing down at his right arm, and Benrey frowned, color bubbling behind his lips, spilling out when he spoke. “Does uh, Does Gordon Feetman need help?” Gordon glanced over, looking up at the color for a split second before back to Benrey. </p><p>“Uh... yeah, that’d be uh... appreciated, Benrey.” Benrey grabbed the syrup, drizzling it across the bits of waffle on Gordon’s plate, and took the chance once more to find Gordon’s sweet voice. There was embarrassment, yes, and Benrey understood that, needing help was never fun, but there was a bit of relief hidden in there too, for what Benrey assumed was not having to make an ass of himself in front of Bubby or himself, the two that usually jumped on him about things. </p><p>Benrey set it aside before Gordon said anything. It was far less syrup than Coomer, Tommy, or himself used, which had taken easily half the brand new bottle, but Benrey didn’t want to, even jokingly, upset Gordon right now. He had fucked up enough before. </p><p>Gordon stared at him for a moment, as he stabbed as his food carefully, before turning to his own food. </p><p>They ate in relative silence, all of them ignoring the sweet voice that Benrey couldn’t seem to get under control the entire meal, though Tommy would shoot worried glances out of the corner of his eye towards him, watching the fear and worry and pain float out of his mouth each time he took a bite of food. </p><p>They sat in silence as they finished, and Benrey wanted to sink off, noclip through the floor and disappear into the void. He stared down at Sunkist, and reached down to pet her head again. She licked the syrup off his fingers before he could pet her, but that was okay. This gave him a reason to stay. </p><p>“Alright... we need to talk.” Gordon looked over and Benrey, who nodded, not letting himself shrink any further. He had to explain himself.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Instead of finding shades for your emotions in sweet voice to rhyme them, write from Benrey's POV, as he just sees the emotion. That way, you don't have to do as much work. </p><p>Also this was originally going to have the whole converstation in it (Which will include more tommy and bubby and coomer) but like... again it was getting kinda long.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Talking</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>As you can see, I now have no clue how long this is gonna be... oops.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Alright... we need to talk.” Gordon looked over and Benrey, who nodded, not letting himself shrink any further. He had to explain himself. </p><p>Benrey glanced over to Gordon before sitting up a bit straighter, chewing nervously on his lip, Sweet voice slipped out between his teeth and he sighed softly, looking to Tommy, who smiled. “I can, I can translate for you Benrey! If you need it.” </p><p>He nodded slightly, but gave an apologetic look towards him as emotion poured free. No real sentence for Tommy to translate properly, no sign that he was okay, just color and feelings pouring out from between his teeth, floating around their heads. </p><p>Tommy didn’t say anything at first, instead standing and hugging Benrey close to his chest, just holding onto him for a moment, as the color petered out, and Benrey felt... not better, but lighter at the very least. “He’s... scared, and-and hurt and... most of this is fear...” Tommy looked up at the colors floating around them, frowning. </p><p>“He uh, he’s been convinced we were all friends, that all his little, little jokes where landing as jokes, and didn’t... didn’t realize that they were hurting people. He’s not really human you know.” Tommy looked around at the group, frowning slightly. “Really, Mr. Freeman, you’re the only one of us that is fully human anymore.” </p><p>Gordon was silent, looking up at all the colors filtering around the air, slowly disappearing into nothing. Benrey turned his head to press the side of it against’s Tommy’s chest, and to be able to look over at him. </p><p>“Well, I still think of him as a friend!” Coomer said, extending one arm out to pat the top of Benrey’s head, causing Bubby and Tommy to laugh softly. Benrey cracked a smile at it, but stayed focused on Gordon. After a moment, he looked over, emotions fighting his eyes and Benrey frowned slightly, shifting out of Tommy’s grip to look at him properly. </p><p>“I don’t... I’m not that angry at you, not anymore, not really...” Gordon frowned, eyes darting around while he tried to figure out his own emotions, and Benrey, who could see them all so clearly, hidden in that sweet voice in his eyes, shifted and tapped Gordon’s cheek, catching his eyes again. “Uh... Benrey?” </p><p>“Your fuckin... sweet voice, dude... Lemme... lemme look at it, we can, uh, Tommy can tell you all the things thats fucked up in there.” Gordon stared at him for a moment, but kept his eye, and Benrey tilted his head, watching the colors swirl, slowly finding the right frequencies and letting them slip out from his lips, his own colors dissipating to make room for Gordon’s. </p><p>“I... have a sweet voice?” </p><p>“Everyone... everyone’s got one bro, it’s just all locked up, but uh, I can, I can see it there, dunno why I never payed any fucking attention to it.” His own anger came out, but it floated differently than Gordon’s colors, and Tommy continued looking upwards at them, frowning slightly. </p><p>“Mr, uh... Mr. Freeman, you’re kinda... a mess.” Gordon laughed, nodding a bit. Tommy glanced over at him, and then back to the sweet voice hovering in the air. “You’re... happy, kinda, but also betrayed, kinda? But there’s also a lot of worry in here, about Benrey, that shade is how Benrey talks about himself so I guess it’s how he’s naming it here too.” Tommy pointed to a shade of grey, and Gordon nodded, filing that away for future use. “It all makes sense but it does look kinda confusing to feel...” </p><p>Gordon sighed softly, looking back to Benrey, who had stopped singing for Gordon, and instead had gone silent, one hand over his mouth to stop any more rouge escaping sweet voice from ruining this. Gordon sighed softly. </p><p>“You... kinda sucked for a bit there, Benrey. Like, I get how a lot of it was supposed to be jokes, but some of those actually hit a nerve.” Benrey nodded, looking up at him quietly, staring past his eyes to focus on the color hidden deep there that no one but him saw. “I... I just... I guess I can contribute that to you not being human, which I figured at some point...” </p><p>Benrey sighed lowly, nodding a bit. “Not... Not human, not really, just like... to the left a few steps. Human shaped.” He mumbled it out, but sweet voice escaped anyways, and he glared betrayed up at it. Sometimes this damn gift of his sucked more than it was worth. Gordon looked up at it, frowning slightly. </p><p>“You don’t... have to be scared of us, you know. Like Tommy said, not being human is a thing in this group. I’m the only one that has to get used to it.” </p><p>“Exactly! I’m basically a cyborg at this point and Bubby was created to be the perfect being! He has fire powers and a lack of understanding his own empathy!” Bubby glared over at Coomer for a moment, before sighing. </p><p>“Yeah, yeah, I guess. I fucked up a few times too, Benrey. It wasn’t just you, though that whole weird ass boss battle thing was fucked up. We’re the ones who got his arm cut off, though really we didn’t tell them to do that, I’m stressing that again.” </p><p>“We’ve all got, uh, problems, Benrey! We just gotta work through them a bit more.” Tommy smiled over at him, eyes glowing just barely. Past the glow, Benrey could see the sincerity tinged hope floating around, and he nodded, glancing back to Gordon. </p><p>“Speaking of, uh, the whole, arm thing, whens that gonna uh, grow back, cause like... kinda not cool of him to heal it shut like that, it’s gotta have, uh room to grow.” Benrey looked up at Gordon, frowning at the confusion there. </p><p>“Benrey... It’s not gonna grow back. Human can’t regrow limbs.” Benrey stared at him, his stomach dropping. No, that... that can’t be right. Tommy regrew his arm awhile back, but... no Tommy’s not fully human, he’s human to the right two steps, and Bubby just had his reattached, didn’t he, and... and Coomer’s are robotic, he’s, he fucked up- </p><p>“Hey, hey breathe, it’s alright.” Gordon shifted, tugging Benrey into his chest again and color burst from around him, spilling out the sides of his mouth, escaping and bursting near the ceiling instead of just disappearing, colors painting the walls for a split second before that was gone, replaced by other sweet voice bursting as he panicked, he hurt Gordon more than he thought by orchestrating that little prank. “Benrey, it’s okay, I can get something like Dr. Coomer has, it’s not that hard, and it’s actually easier to forgive you knowing you thought it would grow back.” </p><p>Gordon kept talking, just random words, and Benrey focused in on their voices, getting the sweet voice to stop fucking bursting everywhere, and soon enough all four of them were talking, have some sort of inane conversation that Benrey wasn’t really following, just focusing on to calm down. He... He needed to float again, but he couldn’t just go to bed again, that wouldn’t be cool of him. </p><p>Sunkist whined at him by his feet and his eyes darted down to her, as she shifted and pushed the chair closer to him in order to put her front paws up onto it to press her head against his back. Distantly, he heard Tommy praise her for it, but Benrey didn’t fully pay attention to it, just the pressure and the noise of them talking around him, letting himself drift, closing his eyes to press his head into Gordon’s chest and listen to his heart beat against his ribs.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Benrey not knowing how humans work is always gonna be my favorite thing, and also imma use it... for angst reasons.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Bubby</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>IM ACTUALLY GONNA CRY </p><p>Like, I have never, in my life, gotten this much interaction on any of my fanfics this quickly, and everyone in the HLVRAI fandom is so fucking sweet? Like you're all so nice!! I love you!! Here's Bubby and Benrey being super emotional and stupid together as a treat.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey floated. He was tired, though not as tired as the others he was sure, but emotionally, he was done. He slept. Gordon had needed to actually do things, apparently, so Benrey was just on the couch. He went to the end of his tether, really only across the living room, to calm down, distance himself from the horrible feelings that his body decided had been appropriate. </p><p>If this is what being a human was like, Benrey was kinda glad he wasn’t one. </p><p>It was calming, being there but not being required to say anything, or react. He could watch everything happening, but no one expected or wanted him to respond, or even for him to talk about his feelings. As long as he floated just outside of it all, he felt better. </p><p>Gordon was in the shower. Coomer was in the kitchen, and Benrey had no clue what it was, but he was loud with whatever he was doing. Even disconnected as he was. Tommy had taken Sunkist out, saying that he needed to talk to his dad, and when Benrey had peaked out the window after Tommy stepped out the door, Tommy and Sunkist were gone. </p><p>That just left Bubby. Who sat next to Benrey’s sleeping body curled up on the couch. The ends of Bubby’s hair was smoking, though why Benrey didn’t actually know. Sometimes Bubby just did that. </p><p>Bubby didn’t touch him, but watched him a moment, before sighing. “I know you can just wake up, do that.” </p><p>Benrey glared at him for a moment, before sitting up back on the couch, looking over at him. “Can you not. A bro needs some sleep, you know?” </p><p>“You slept all night.” </p><p>“Emotionally a bro needs some sleep.” Benrey tugged at his hair, glancing around to find his helmet, plopping it back over his head. It was crusted with dried blood which flaked off around him, but it muffled some of the noise that Coomer was making in the other room, down to a more manageable level. “Tell your, uh, your bro to quiet down a bit.” </p><p>“Harold is my husband, Benrey.” But Bubby still stood, popping his head into the kitchen. Benrey didn’t pay attention to what exactly was said, but the noise level did go down a bit, so he figured it was a success. </p><p>Bubby came to sit again after a moment, and Benrey just looked at him, shifting a bit to catch his eyes. Bubby frowned at him, but Benrey said nothing, leaning back after a moment. There wasn’t really any anger there either, just the shades of confusion, and, what kinda surprised him, worry. Why was Bubby worried about him? </p><p>“Benrey you do know we planned that ambush together right? Gordon losing his arm isn’t just your fault. Sure we could have stopped it, but well... Both of us have less than realistic ideas about what a human body could do. If I was hurt they just put my back in my tube and fixed it. I thought we could do the same with Gordon.” Benrey just stared at him for a moment, uncomprehending. </p><p>“What?” Bubby groaned softly, shaking his head. </p><p>“Think it through.” </p><p>So they sat in silence, as Benrey thought through that sequence of events. They had planned it together, Benrey as a little joke, Bubby in an attempt to get rid of the trackers in the suit. Everything went to shit after, but still. He didn’t plan it alone. </p><p>Benrey glanced over towards Bubby, who was leaning back on the couch, head turned towards the kitchen. He listened quietly, just barely being able to hear Coomer singing something. Benrey snickered softly, and Bubby shot a glare at him. </p><p>“Shut up, Benrey.” Benrey grinned up at him for a moment, before sitting up, sighing, not even bothering to hide his now, apparently uncontrollable, sweet voice bubbling out of his mouth. Bubby glared at it for a moment, before curiosity overtook him and he reach out, poking one of the bubbles, sending it slightly off course of where it had been floating. “What the fuck...” </p><p>“Don’t, Don’t touch em, bro, that’s not... that’s not cool.” Benrey smiled at him a moment, as Bubby met his eyes, before reaching up and poking a second off course. “Dude, that’s so not cool of you.” A third-</p><p>“What are you two doing?” Benrey looked over at Gordon, and Bubby took the chance to poke the last few bubbles away from Benrey’s head, grinning to himself as he did. </p><p>“Bro, he’s, uh, he touchin my sweet voice, bro, that’s so not cool of him bro.” Benrey grinned, watching Gordon track one of the bubbles that Bubby was playing with now, batting it around as it tried to float around the room, Bubby repeatedly sending it off course. </p><p>“You know what... I’m gonna see if Dr. Coomer needs any help.” With that, Gordon stepped into the kitchen. Benrey heard Coomer’s ‘Hello Gordon!’ and turned back to Bubby who was in the process of trying to eat the sweet voice bubble that he had caught. Benrey stared at him, Bubby staring back as he stuck his teeth in the bubble only to have is disappear from his hands. </p><p>“Gordon seems friendly enough to us, Benrey, it’s not like he doesn’t know we didn’t mean for them to cut his arm off. He was still nice enough to me afterwards, he got me out of my tube. Everything’s fine. I mean, it’s not perfect, but,” Bubby shrugged, standing “I don’t think it’ll be any better for awhile. Think about it. We all just lost our jobs, I’m outside Black Mesa for the first time in my life, Harold is coming down off of what I can only assume was a major disassociation problem, we’re all a mess.” Bubby shook out his singed coat, frowning at it a moment. “It’ll be fine eventually. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to shower.” He walked into the kitchen after that, and Benrey closed his eyes, leaning his head back. </p><p>Bubby was right. Gordon seemed to be... unusually kind to people that had hurt him in the past. Coomer had his moment, Bubby had one... Maybe it wouldn’t suck as bad as he thought it would.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Woke up at four pm, had emotions with my boyf, wrote this. Hope you enjoyed our two non-human idiots trying to remember how emotions work.</p><p>Bubby be like *puts things in his mouth*</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Dishes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Benrey do be like *has breakdown*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey shuffled into the kitchen, where Gordon was finishing the dishes that Coomer had apparently abandoned. Benrey frowned slightly, moving over to help dry things off, staying silent. Gordon glanced over at him, smiling softly, but said nothing as well, instead choosing to keep the soft gentle silence that ended up surrounding them. </p><p>Putting away the dishes proved to be an issue, as Benrey had no clue the lay out of Tommy’s kitchen, and he was unsurprised to find that it was absolutely nonsensical. Nothing of any of them made a single lick of sense, so why would this?<br/>
They finished rather quickly, since Coomer had done most of the work before disappearing with Bubby, and Benrey turned, hopping up to sit on the counter, arms balanced on his knees, frowning down at the floor. Gordon leaned against the counter next to him. </p><p>Silence. </p><p>It was slowly becoming unbearable, but Benrey had no clue how to break it. He didn’t know how he could start any conversation with Gordon now, how he could even begin to apologize for everything he had-</p><p>“THAT’S NOT HOW IT FUCKING WORKS, HAROLD!” </p><p>Gordon jumped, turning his head in the direction of the bathroom, though that was through a wall, eyes wide. “Uh... what in the world was that?”<br/>
Benrey snickered softly. “I think, uh, I think Bubby and Coomer are uh, having a lil disagreement there.” </p><p>“I thought Bubby was in the shower?” </p><p>Benrey looked over at Gordon, then frowned. That... </p><p>“They... They wouldn’t right? In Tommy’s shower?” </p><p>Benrey shook his head. “No... No they, they wouldn’t do that. I don’t think they would...” </p><p>Gordon stared at him for a second, before shaking his head. “Yeah I’m not gonna think about that, uh...” </p><p>They went silent again, before Benrey sighed, leaning forwards to hide his face in his hands, helmet sliding partially off his head. “Why is it so hard... to fuckin talk to you normally?” </p><p>“What?” </p><p>“I don’t! I don’t wanna be a dick! I don’t wanna be that one person on game that loses and just starts being an asshole for no reason, I want! Gah!” Benrey shook his head, helmet flying of and hitting the tile with a clatter, Benrey grabbing fistfuls of his hair and holding on tightly, growling to himself quietly, sweet voice bubbling out and floating around his head</p><p>“Hey, hey, it’s alright.” Gordon shifted, moving to stand in front of him rather than besides him, gently pushing his helmet to the side so he could. </p><p>“But it’s not! It’s not okay! I fucked up, I hurt you and it can’t be fixed!” Benrey looked up at him, eyes growing wide when Gordon took a step back from him. He searched for that hidden sweet voice, and almost cried again at the fear shade there, though it was surrounded by worry. </p><p>“Benrey, it’s okay! Really, I’ll just get something like Coomer. I’m sure that Black Mesa is gonna come up with some sort of hush money, it’ll be fine. I handled it fine then, I can deal with it now, you didn’t know they were going to do this.” </p><p>Benrey shook his head. “It’s not just that, I... I was an asshole. Just all over the place, making fun of stupid shit that I don’t think you could actually control, why the fuck was I such a jerk? You didn’t deserve that, Gordon!” He flinched back, but just found Gordon’s arms wrapped around him. Benrey sat stock still for a moment, before grabbing onto him, shaking, face pressed into his shoulder. </p><p>“Breathe, Benrey, you’re alright.” Benrey closed his eyes and just clung onto him. Faintly, he wished that he could actually apologize without needing to be comforted by the person he needed to apologize to, but he felt safe in Gordon’s arms. Maybe eventually he could get through it without freaking himself out, but for now, he took comfort in being surrounded by Gordon, hidden from view in his arms.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>No they are not fucking in the shower, you'll hear what they WERE doing next chapter, but it's stupid.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Interior Decorating</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The reveal of what the fuck Bubby and Coomer were talking about that Bubby got so heated about.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey and Gordon ended up on the couch again. Gordon didn’t really lift Benrey up properly to carry him over towards the couch, but they still ended up there without Benrey really walking. He thinks that Sunkist was involved, since Tommy had come back, looking a bit upset, though he didn’t say anything. Benrey knew he had to wait until Coomer and Bubby were out of the bathroom. <br/>When the two did exit the bathroom, Bubby’s hair was wet, but Coomer was completely dry. Gordon frowned at him for a moment, and Coomer grinned. “Bubby doesn’t like showering alone!” </p><p>Bubby frowned, shaking his head out like a wet dog. “Sure, whatever, I’m still not happy with you.” </p><p>“What were you two talking about in there? We heard Bubby yell at you, Coomer.” </p><p>“Interior Decorating!” </p><p>Benrey stared at them, grinning despite himself. </p><p>“... There is no way-” </p><p>“His color schemes are horrible and I refuse to accept them.” Bubby declared, sitting on the couch and letting his hair drip onto the back of it. Coomer perched himself on the coach armrest next to Bubby, looking over at Tommy. </p><p>Tommy sighed lowly, leaning back against the back of his part of the couch, frowning. “I uh, I talked to... to my dad. He uh, he said that Black Mesa’s gonna... gonna be in contact soon, but not for another couple days, so, we have, we have some time.” </p><p>Gordon closed his eyes, nodding slightly. Benrey glanced over at him, frowning to himself. Thinking about it, he figured this was the best case scenario so far. G-Man was giving them a break, which was both good and bad, and would probably end up with him thinking that they were indebted to him. Benrey could handle that, and would if he had to. </p><p>He wasn’t a villain, they didn’t have to kill him, and they were all relatively unscathed. Benrey ignored the fact that Gordon was now missing an arm, since he had caused that. Him and Bubby he amended after a moment. They seemed fine. He didn’t want them to be hurt at this point, he didn’t have to be the ending villain anymore. </p><p>Someone had to be though. He was sure of that one. Someone had to be the one to end this whole horror, and Benrey was sure that at some point, him breaking down instead of just being a villain was going to bite him in the ass sooner or later. </p><p>“Benrey?” His head snapped up towards Tommy, realizing that he was surrounded by the tiniest bubbles of sweet voice that he had ever seen. He frowned at them, batting them away, ignoring Bubby reaching out and snagging a handful to try and chew on. “Are-are you alright?” </p><p>He nodded slightly, still batting at the colors to just get them away. Tommy frowned, but dropped it. This would be fine. Maybe there didn’t need to be a big boss. Maybe just getting out would count as a win. <br/>Hopefully it would count as a win.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm debating making G-Man a big villain here and having Benrey just lose his shit on that man. I dunno how I feel about G-Man a lot of the time, and I'm not one hundred percent on where this is gonna go, since I started this as a one shot at three am. </p><p>And yes, they were talking about color schemes. No, I am not sharing what Coomer said that got Bubby so fuckin heated.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. G-Man Interlude</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oof this is short but now there's a plot past 'Hey Benrey is sad'</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey was supposed to be the villain. Everything would have been okay if that dammed entity had done his job rather than whatever the fuck had happened in the end. </p><p>God, how easy would it be to just kill him now. Unfortunately, Tommy had come to him earlier. His son had been so happy that they were all okay, that everything had turned out fine in the end. He didn’t want to upset Tommy anymore, but he had to find a way to ruin Benrey in their eyes to be rid of the anomaly. </p><p>It was ridiculous. Completely and utterly ridiculous, that this group of ragtag science experiments and murderers managed to get through everything and come out on top, while still not destroying the entity that he had brought into the world. </p><p>This was a mess. What good where his son’s friends if they couldn’t even clean up his messes? </p><p>Still, he couldn’t just outright kill the entity. Tommy would be upset. It had snuck around unnoticed and befriended Tommy as a defense, he was sure of that one, so that it couldn’t be killed. He loved Tommy, took good care of his human son, despite everything. </p><p>As much as Tommy didn’t seem to have any of the powers he himself had, Tommy knew when they were used. Most of them.<br/>
Soon enough he could deal with the entity his son had befriended, and soon, everything would be okay. He could go back to working in the shadows without the entity hovering around and ruining everything. He just had a few more chess pieces to move into place.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>G-man is a good dad... he's just a bad person.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Do Trans People Exist?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is an entire excuse to just... be wild as shit. Thanks guys it's fun. </p><p>Credit to EchosBane on the comments of chapter six for Bubby Choosing Coomer's Bad Taste. </p><p>Also the links to the colors I Hate Them <br/>https://roshanphilip.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/morocco-maroon.jpg<br/>https://stonewoodpanels.com/images/com_hikashop/upload/sw_ral1004-dc_goldenyellow__95878714.jpg</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Benrey... Can you actually explain what that whole thing? The whole boss fight thing?” Benrey looked over at him, bottom lip snagged in his teeth. He really didn’t want to show too much, and with Tommy right there... bad mouthing his dad would just be rude. So he did the first thing he could think of. </p><p>“Bro, uh, what do you, what do you mean? It was your dick slip bro, like, you just came in with your dick out...” Gordon looked outraged. There was a bit of amusement hidden in that sweet voice of his, so Benrey knew he wasn’t actually mad, but god, it was quite overwhelmed with anger, and surprisingly, a bit of confusion. </p><p>“Benrey, that couldn’t have happened. That dick slip couldn’t have been a thing. Like, it’s impossible.” </p><p>“Bro, what do you mean? I saw it with my own eyes!” He had seen something. To be fair, it wasn’t exactly the same color as Gordon’s skin, but he figured that he was just seeing Gordon’s face and that the man probably didn’t go around tanning his dick. Though... Gordon hadn’t reacted at all... </p><p>Gordon actually paused at that. “Wait you like... actually saw something?” <br/>“Yeah bro, your dick.” </p><p>Gordon shook his head slightly. “Benrey, it impossible. It can’t have been my dick, I don’t have a dick.” </p><p>Benrey’s brain screeched to a halt. “... wuh?” </p><p>“What the fuck do you mean by that, Gordon, as far as I know everyone has a dick.” Bubby glanced around at the weird looks he was getting from everyone else. “What? What’s with the looks?” </p><p>“Bubby... half the population doesn’t have a dick.” </p><p>“Why not? That sound stupid, what the fuck do they have then?” </p><p>There was silence for a moment. No one was quite sure how to explain the concept of a vagina to Bubby, but Coomer piped up then. </p><p>“Bubby, I also don’t have a penis!” Bubby frowned at him, eyes narrowed. <br/>“Not technically anyways!” </p><p>“That can’t be true, I’ve seen you naked before! It was just small!” </p><p>“Well yes, but also no.” Coomer than began to recite a Wikipedia article, and it took everyone a second to realize he was reciting one apparently about vaginas. </p><p>“Okay, okay, Dr. Coomer, you can explain that to him later, okay?” Coomer stopped, nodding towards Gordon, though only looking at Bubby, who looked just as, if not more, confused as he had moments ago. “Let’s get back on topic, Benrey, I can’t have a dick slip with no dick.” </p><p>Benrey blinked, then proceeded to shove the entire conversation that he had just witnessed to the back of his mind. “Bro, I saw it though. I put it back in.” </p><p>“Benrey. That was my packer.” </p><p>“... What?” </p><p>Gordon laughed, watching the confusion colored bubbles bounce up towards the roof. “Benrey, do you know what trans people are?” <br/>And Benrey’s mind stopped again. </p><p>“Ah! I see! How very kind of Benrey to not out you to the rest of the team! A true ally!” Coomer grinned towards Benrey, who was still basically short circuited. </p><p>“What the fuck is a packer?” Bubby asked, and Coomer leaned over to explain it to him. </p><p>“Benrey... You touched it. You said you put it back in, you had to have known that it wasn’t real.” Benrey blinked, looking up at Gordon, shaking his head. </p><p>“Bro, I don’t know what other people’s dicks feel like, how would I know?” Gordon laughed, hunching over a bit. </p><p>“Benrey, it’s fucking silicone. It’s not real. It wouldn’t feel like flesh, dude.” </p><p>Benrey just stared at him processing. Or, not really processing. </p><p>“Harold, I love you, but none of what you just said makes any sort of sense.” Bubby was staring at Coomer with his eyes narrowed suspiciously, as if he didn’t believe in the concept of what Coomer was telling him. </p><p>Gordon sighed softly, then shook his head. “I cannot believe I am about to do this.” Then, he stood, slipping a hand into the jeans he was wearing and pulled out... a dick?</p><p>“Bro what the fuck. What the fuck?” </p><p>“This is a packer, Benrey, Bubby. It’s made so that trans men can look like they have a dick bulge.” </p><p>“Exactly! I never got one since I never thought it necessary for me personally!” Coomer grinned, and Bubby just stared at the packer in Gordon’s had, eyes narrowed slightly, one hand slowly coming up to his mouth as if to chew on it, but Coomer intercepted, carefully pushing his hand back down, instead offering his sleeve. </p><p>“So yea. Dick slip solved. Bubby and Benrey don’t know what trans people are, despite Bubby literally dating one, and Benrey actually touching this silicon and not realizing it was fake as shit.” Gordon laughed, slipping the packer into his pocket, sitting back down, embarrassment coloring his cheek and eyes. </p><p>There was silence for a moment, before Coomer piped up. “Bubby and I were talking about getting a house together now that he isn’t locked in Black Mesa!” <br/>“I hate all of your decoration ideas.” Bubby glared at him, as Coomer just grinned, leaning his head on Bubby’s shoulder. </p><p>“But you love me~” </p><p>“Unfortunately.” Bubby grumbled. </p><p>“Oh yeah, uh, what was that argument about? I heard you say something there.” </p><p>“I liked maroon and golden yellow together!” </p><p>They slowly turned to stare at Coomer, laying his head innocently on Bubby’s shoulder. </p><p>“Do you see what I have to fucking deal with?” </p><p>Tommy, having been silent this entire time, frowned. “But, uh, Bubby, you uh, you’re married to him. You uh, you chose this life.” </p><p>“... Fuck I sure did...”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>What's funnier, Bubby not knowing that anything other than a dick existing, or him not knowing trans people exist despite being married to Coomer? </p><p>Again: They're all crazy and it's been emotions so far. I love it.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Sunkist Lays On People</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know have a plan for this! And you will hate me for what I am going to do to them, specifically Tommy, Benrey, and Bubby.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As much as they wanted to continue the weird conversation they had found themselves in, Benrey still vaguely processing what in the world had just happened, Gordon’s phone rang, something upbeat and peppy, and he lit up, answering it quickly. </p><p>“Hey! Yeah, no, I’m here, it’s good. We were just uh...” He glanced around at the others, frowning, trying to think of some way to describe what they had just talked about, before landing on something. “Talking about interior decorating? I guess? It’s better than other topics we could’ve landed on.” </p><p>Benrey frowned, color bubbling from between his teeth again, though he batted it towards Bubby, watching as he grabbed one to bite on again, frowning at it when his dissipated the moment his teeth sunk in. Benrey wasn’t going to tell him the sweet voice couldn’t be popped artificially, that it had to burst. </p><p>“Yeah! No, uh, I honestly don’t think that they’ll leave me alone for long, since uh, last time that happened... Well, you’ll see.” Gordon fell silent, then laughed. “No, no, I promise, it’ll start to make sense when you see me.” Gordon glanced down towards his right arm, keeping a smile on his face as he talked. “I’m sure Joshy has missed me, so, I’ll be coming over soon to see him. I’m not one hundred percent on if I can take him back just yet, uh, there’s a lot that happened.” </p><p>Benrey frowned harder. He had caused that. Sure he had insulted the picture of his son in the locker, but Joshua had been a cute kid, as far as he had seen. He just wanted to poke fun at Gordon, but he always liked kids. </p><p>“I really appreciate it. I know I don’t have to say it, but honestly.... Yeah, yeah, I know.... Okay. Well, we’ll all be over soon enough. Trust me, you will know it’s us. Just... trust me on that one?” Gordon laughed again. “Yeah yeah, I’m not bringing anyone too crazy over.” He glanced around at the group, with Benrey spitting sweet voice, Bubby chewing on both that and Coomer’s sleeve, Coomer barely noticing as he attempted to actually explain the concept of gender to Bubby, and Tommy, who was laying on the floor with Sunkist on top of him. Who knows if Tommy was actually breathing, though Benrey knew that he didn’t really have to either. “Uh... well... they’re not actually bat shit insane, so that’s all I can promise... Yeah, no, we’re fine. They won’t hurt anyone, I’ve just... amassed an eclectic bunch.” </p><p>Benrey actually laughed out loud at that, humor colored bubbles floating around him as he hunched over and laughed at the idea of someone calling this group, half of which wasn’t even remotely human, as ‘eclectic’ and completely missed the end of the phone call, though he did hear his name. Instead he sagged to the floor, laughing to himself. Coomer had snorted as well, but he wasn’t laughing nearly as hard as Benrey, and Bubby was just staring at him. </p><p>Tommy, underneath Sunkist, probably hadn’t even heard anything. </p><p>“Dude, you know she heard you right? Like, loud and clear, the moment I called you ‘eclectic’ she heard you die.” Benrey laughed again, sweet voice slipping up and circling Gordon’s head. </p><p>“Bro, do you, do you have any idea... what it’s like to be called that? Knowing who we are?” Benrey laughed harder, and this actually managed to get a snort out of Bubby, Coomer starting to giggle as well. Gordon paused for a moment, before starting to laugh softly. </p><p>“I mean... what else am I supposed to say? We’ve got the test tube baby, the eldritch being, the son of a different eldritch being, and a very cybernetically enhanced scientist. How do I describe that in a way that makes any sort of sense? Eclectic. There’s no other way to describe you guys as a whole without making her freak out and worry about Joshua, and I trust you guys enough to not hurt my son.” </p><p>“You can trust us, Mr. Freeman!” Tommy called from underneath Sunkist, who barked and squirmed on top of him, rolling off and letting him sit up finally. He was covered in dog fur and slobber, but grinning. “I wanna meet Joshua!” </p><p>“Yes! I’m sure your son is more beautiful in person, Gordon!” Coomer gently tugged his sleeve free from Bubby’s teeth, shaking it out so it wasn’t gross, and slipped his jacket back on, ignoring the fact that Bubby had torn multiple holes in the fabric. </p><p>“Alright well... Tommy, I’m not sure how to get there from here, but if we stop by my apartment, I can grab something for Joshua that I wanted to give him after I got home from work, and maybe my car so we don’t... have to rely on your dad’s weird teleportation thing.” </p><p>“Oh, don’t worry Mr. Freeman! That’s, uh, that’s one of his tricks that I got too!” With that, they were all suddenly standing in a different living room, though Bubby had gone from sitting on the couch to laying on the floor, probably a consequence of not having been standing when Tommy moved them. </p><p>Tommy glanced around, ignoring Bubby’s soft groan of annoyance and pain, frowning. “I probably should have warned you guys before doing that huh?” </p><p>Gordon blinked a few time, nodding. “Yeah... kinda makes me sick, but good to know you can do that.” He smiled softly, then turned to walk off. “I’ll be right back? Just hang out for a minute or two!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So! This is soon gonna be... uh... angst as shit. Tommy is baby by the way, just let's Sunkist Smother Him.<br/>Edit: some art of Sunkist killing Tommy: https://e-benrey.tumblr.com/post/626014612948664320/sunkist-drowns-tommy</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Sweet Voice and Dog Horses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You finally meet Joshua and Harmony! </p><p>BTW, Joshua is their biological son, they're both trans and gay, which is why they divorced! They're still on good terms!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gordon came back out wearing a cowboy hat. </p><p>Benrey stared directly at him, as he balanced a cowboy hat on his right arm to shut a door behind him. He turned, catching everyone staring at him. “What? Joshua likes cowboys. His old hat has gotten kinda torn up but he really likes that one, so I figured if we got matching ones, we could get rid of the old one.” </p><p>Benrey nodded a bit, but couldn’t hold back the snickers that came up at the image of Gordon in a cowboy hat. Gordon stared unamused at him, until Benrey muffled himself, sweet voice bubbling out around his hand. </p><p>“You are a child.” </p><p>That set Benrey off again. </p><p>“Mr. Freeman, where is Joshua right now?” </p><p>Benrey took that moment to check out and calm down, and Tommy actually warned them before showing up outside of a small house. Gordon glanced around, then smiled, grabbing the cowboy hat off his arm and tucking it behind his back. Benrey frowned slightly, but Gordon seemed excited enough, so he didn’t say anything. </p><p>The first thing Benrey noticed was red hair. He blinked, pulling himself back from his focus on that, but the color was vibrant. He wasn’t sure if anyone could achieve that level of red without dye, but he could be wrong. He’d been wrong about humans before. </p><p>“Hey Harmony!” She laughed, bringing Gordon into a hug quickly. </p><p>“There you are.” Harmony looked past Gordon to see their group he had brought, which included Tommy petting Sunkist’s head, Bubby chewing on something that Coomer had gotten from his pockets, and Coomer, standing there grinning as usual. As well as Benrey, with his ever present shadow across his eyes. “I... see what you mean by eclectic.” </p><p>“Oh just wait.” Gordon laughed, peeking into the house a bit. “Where Joshy?” </p><p>“Oh he’s at the table coloring, he hasn’t noticed you yet. I want some explanation before he does though.” Harmony’s eyes widened as Gordon finally revealed his right arm. </p><p>“Uh yeah...” With that, she stepped to the side and let them in, all of them filing into the house behind Gordon. He slipped into the living room, still behind Joshua, who hadn’t looked up from his drawing. </p><p>“What happened?” </p><p>“Oh, uh I got... well long story short, I got ambushed and my arm hacked off with a knife by the US Military, and then Tommy’s dad healed it.” </p><p>Benrey stared. Joshua was right there. “Uh, bro, isn’t that a little bit... a lot to be, uh, sayin in front of your kid?” </p><p>Gordon frowned at him, glancing to Joshua. “Benrey, it’s fine.” </p><p>“No, Benrey’s right, Gordon! That would raise a lot of questions, and he looks quite young!” Coomer frowned slightly, looking towards Joshua, who had yet to even lift his head. </p><p>Harmony paused, before turning to Gordon. “Did you not tell them?” </p><p>“I might have forgotten to tell them, though, to be fair to me, making sure we didn’t die was a bit more important.” Harmony nodded slightly, before turning back to the team. </p><p>“Joshua is deaf. That’s why he hasn’t noticed us yet.” Coomer made a soft ‘oh’ noise, as Gordon lifted the smaller hat he had been holding, and flipped it onto Joshua’s head. </p><p>The four year jumped slightly, grabbing at his head then whipped around, eyes lighting up when he saw Gordon. His hands moved in something Benrey assumed was sign, grabbing onto Gordon and hugging him close. Gordon laughed, a bit louder than Benrey had heard him do so before, but Joshua squirmed, giggling as well, hands coming up to tug at his hat. </p><p>“Cute kid.” Benrey mumbled, sweet voice slipping out of his mouth, before he managed to clamp a hand over it, eyes going wide. Harmony stared at it for a moment, before turning towards Gordon. </p><p>“Your friend just leaked.” Gordon glanced over at them, frowning, before nodding. </p><p>“Yeah he does that sometimes. It can be translated. Tommy?” </p><p>“That one means sincerity!” Tommy piped up, grinning. He had sat down at this point, Sunkist sitting next to him. Gordon shifted, standing up, letting Joshua hold onto his leg. He tapped on Joshua’s shoulder, getting him to look up at him to gesture towards the science team. </p><p>The first one he saw was Sunkist. </p><p>The ear-piercing screech that came from that boy cause Benrey to flinch back, shock tumbling out of his mouth as Joshua scrambled over. Harmony’s eyes went wide, but Sunkist just flopped over and let Joshua pet her. </p><p>“You don’t have to worry, Ms. Harmony!” Tommy grinned up at her. “Sunkist is the perfect dog! She won’t hurt Joshua!” </p><p>“I’m more worried about Joshua hurting her.” Harmony responded, moving over, but Tommy simply slipped a hand into Joshua’s line of sight, getting his attention before singing something slowly and carefully towards him. Joshua stared, processing for a moment, before nodding at Tommy, much more careful with Sunkist than he had before.</p><p>“I know sign, Ms. Harmony, but even then, Sunkist isn’t gonna be hurt by a little fur pulling! I took that into account when I made her!” </p><p>That caused Harmony to pause. “You... made her?” </p><p>“Yup! She’s the perfect dog, cause I made her to be perfect!” </p><p>Gordon slipped up besides Harmony, leaning over. “Just let it happen. Black Mesa is strange enough as it is.” Harmony sighed, conceding that point. Joshua looked up at Tommy then, signing something up at him. Benrey really needed to learn sign if he wanted to interact with this kid. Tommy nodded at him, and Joshua laughed loudly, Sunkist wiggling out from underneath Joshua to stand. </p><p>Tommy stood, carefully lifting Joshua up onto Sunkist’s back. Joshua screeched with laughter, eyes lighting up as he looked up at Gordon, who grinned back. Benrey laughed, sweet voice bubbling out of his mouth and Tommy very gently nudged Joshua and pointed up at the colors.</p><p>Next thing Benrey knew, he was on the floor letting Sweet Voice tumble out of his mouth with Joshua on his lap laughing, trying to catch the bubble in his hands. Gordon was leaning back on the couch, explaining everything to Harmony. Sunkist curled around Benrey as he sang softly, smiling at Joshua. </p><p>“So... you’re sure he’s safe now?” He heard Harmony say, and Benrey knew they were talking about him. The colors changed quickly in the sweet voice, but it just delighted Joshua and Benrey focused on that. </p><p>“Oh, yeah, one hundred percent. I trust him.” Gordon smiled towards him, and Benrey smiled back, pink to blue bubbling from his mouth, before he turned back to Joshua, covering his mouth. Joshua whined softly, and Benrey uncovered his mouth, letting the rest of the color bubble out of his mouth. </p><p>Gordon laughed softly, turning back to Harmony, when everything froze. It was silent. Joshua’s loud bubbling laugh was abruptly cut off and Benrey’s eyes went wide. He knew what this was. </p><p>He knew who this was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>G-Man is a bastard everyone. I'm pumping these out cause I have such vivid ideas in my head, I swear to god-</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Rainbow Time Stops</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Benrey has,,, sharp teef,,,, so does Bubby,,,, this is canon in my heart.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey felt the panic seize his heart, stilling the beat to a near full stop, but let none of it show, sweet voice suddenly snapped under control. He looked up towards G-Man, standing in front of him, back to the room. “Uh, do you, uh, got your passport, bro?” </p><p>“Listen to me carefully. You will leave my son alone. You will do whatever it takes to distance yourself from him.” Benrey raised an eyebrow, though knowing it was hidden under his helmet. He glanced around carefully, catching a split second of movement. He ignored it for now, eyes focusing back on G-Man. </p><p>“Bro, where’s your passport. You can’t be in here without a passport you know. I-” </p><p>“Shut up. You are nothing to me but an anomaly to be destroyed. Keep away from my son, and maybe, maybe I’ll let you live.” Another flash of movement, and Benrey glanced back behind G-Man. </p><p>Tommy made eye contact with him, and shifted his head slightly, back to it’s original position. </p><p>Benrey flicked his eyes back to G-Man, who was still going on, but Benrey didn’t pay attention. Tommy was listening. Tommy was watching his father threaten Benrey. </p><p>“-and if you disobey me, I will tear you apart atom by atom. Do you understand me?” G-Man growled, and Benrey huffed, looking back down at the frozen Joshua, that bright grin covering his face. </p><p>“Fine.” Benrey muttered, and G-Man grinned, before he was gone. A split second later the color flooded back and Joshua’s screeching laughter came back. Benrey grinned, letting a few more sweet voice bubbles slip free from his teeth. </p><p>Benrey glanced up towards Tommy, who was watching him quietly, what looked to be a content smile on his face, though hidden deep in that sweet voice of his was upset, confusion, pain, and Benrey just smiled back at him. </p><p>“I think he’s just happy.” Benrey leaned back, catching a glimpse of that vibrant sweet voice in Joshua’s eyes and actually laugh, grinning, though he had been trying to hide his teeth so far, but he couldn’t stop himself. Joshua had so many colors mixed up in his eyes, and Benrey just laughed, eyes shining, colors matching Joshua’s bubbling free and surrounding them. </p><p>Gordon watched quietly, eyes wide as Benrey surrounded them in colors. Harmony glanced back towards him, then snorted, leaning over. “I’ve seen that look before.” <br/>“Shut up, look at him.” Gordon muttered back to her, and she just laughed along with them. </p><p>The moment only stopped when Joshua tried to grab for one of Benrey’s sharp teeth.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This chapter only exists so that you know that Tommy knows.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Families Come Crumbling Down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Tommy gets to cry for a little bit there! Not a lot, but Tommy def needs it after last chapter</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey almost panicked when Joshua’s hand shot towards his mouth, but a quick movement from Tommy had Joshua up out of Benrey’s lap, and Tommy had him distracted with Sunkist again rather quickly. Benrey covered his mouth with his hand, eyes wide. “I uh... didn’t know he’d do that.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, I should’ve warned you, he grabs for things he shouldn’t all the time.” Harmony laughed softly. “You okay?” Benrey looked up, a bit in surprise, before nodding.</p><p>“I’m more worried about him... I’ve got some pretty sharp chompers.” Benrey moved his hand, mouth open a bit to show off his teeth towards them, now that Joshua was distracted. “Could’ve got him good there.” </p><p>“He’s fine, Benrey!” Tommy piped up, from where he was helping Joshua balance on Sunkist’s back, Sunkist standing patiently, tail wagging. “No little cuts or anything!” </p><p>Benrey frowned a moment, but chose to believe him, standing and brushing himself off. He glanced over at Bubby, who once again had Coomer’s sleeve in his mouth, and then looked towards Tommy, letting sweet voice bubble out of of his mouth. </p><p>
  <em>We need to talk </em>
</p><p>Tommy hummed, but Benrey knew that Tommy understood, and he leaned over towards Gordon. “Imma step outside. Gotta get that fresh air.” </p><p>Gordon rolled his eyes slightly, but nodded. “Don’t run off.” </p><p>Coomer waved at him as he left, and Benrey waved back, slipping outside to sit in the yard, staring upwards towards the sky. He hadn’t seen sky in any sort of calm setting for awhile, so it was nice. Cloud floating by, soon joined by sweet voice as he lay back, watching them all float off together, the bubbles disappearing just out of his field of vision. </p><p>It took Tommy a few minutes to come outside, but soon enough, he sat down next to Benrey, flicking at the laces on his shoes. Benrey was silent for a moment, before sitting up and turning his body to face Tommy. </p><p>“I don’t... wanna believe it.” Tommy said quietly, staring down at his shoes, untying and retying the knot as he spoke. Benrey glanced down, soon realizing he couldn’t follow the movements that Tommy made. “He’s my dad, you know? Sure he wasn’t around when I was really little, but that’s okay, he isn’t good with really little kids like Joshua. He came back and... he’s been a good dad since, you know? He loves me.” </p><p>Benrey nodded slightly, letting sweet voice bubble out around him, not wanting to speak exactly. He sang a few lines out, letting Tommy look up at them. </p><p>
  <em>He’s good to you. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I don’t want you to be upset.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’m sorry </em>
</p><p>“It’s alright Benrey. I... think I’ve always known that he’s not... good. I just didn’t wanna think about it. He’s my dad, and he’s a good dad. He’s just not a good person.” Tommy sniffled softly, and Benrey frowned, shifting forwards to hug him. Tommy clung onto him tightly, not quite crying, but definitely not alright. </p><p>They sat in silence for a moment, before Tommy spoke up again. </p><p>“I really don’t want you to go. I’m not gonna let you.” </p><p>Benrey laughed slightly, pulling back so Tommy could see the sweet voice again. </p><p>
  <em>I’m not going anywhere </em>
</p><p>“Good! Cause I would, I would hunt you down and drag you back!” Tommy grinned at him, rubbing at one of his eyes to dry it. “I’m not letting you go anywhere... but we’ve only got until he gets back in contact with all of us to think of something...” Tommy frowned, and Benrey sighed softly. </p><p>
  <em>It’ll be okay. </em>
</p><p>“You think so?” Benrey nodded, and Tommy sighed again, nodding with him, retying the shoe he had left undone. “Yeah... If it’s not, I’ll make it okay.” With that, Tommy stood, holding out a hand to Benrey. “Let’s get inside! Ms. Harmony is gonna make us lunch!” </p><p>Benrey smiled and took his head, letting Tommy yank him to his feet. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I like to imagine, at the end, Tommy yanks him up and almost yeets him</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Cuddles for Your Bro</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Cuddle your friends, cowards</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Joshua goes down for a nap after lunch, and they left during it. Gordon asked Harmony to watch Joshua for another couple days, and she did so gladly. After all, Gordon had been through hell, and they still needed to sort a good bit of it out. </p><p>Tommy took them home from inside the house this time, and only realized Bubby had stolen a handful, or rather mouthful, of leaves from a fake plant in her living room when they returned to Gordon’s apartment. </p><p>Benrey huffed out a sigh, settling on the couch, which sunk under his weight. He frowned down at it, and Gordon laughed nervously. “Yeah sorry, it’s kinda old...” Benrey shook his head, but shifted so he was still sunk, but comfortably now. This did mean, however, that his feet were in Bubby’s lap. </p><p>Bubby was distracted by his leaves too much to care. </p><p>Tommy stayed standing, Sunkist circling around him quietly. Gordon looked over, frowning at him. “Are you alright?” </p><p>“I... Well, we need to tell you something.” Tommy looked over at Benrey, who shifted, flinging one arm back on the couch. </p><p>“Cuddles for your bro.” Tommy didn’t laugh, which was the first sign to the others that something major was wrong, but he did walk over to him, compacting himself to fit onto Benrey’s lap. It looked a bit awkward, compacting all near 7 feet of Tommy’s height into Benrey’s lap, but it wasn’t the first time they had done this, so it worked. </p><p>“What’s up?” Gordon sat a bit away from the, around the bend of his couch so he could see them. Coomer settled in his spot next to Bubby, pulling a small plastic bag out of nowhere for Bubby to spit the remains of the leaves into. </p><p>“We’ve got... a bastard.” Benrey glanced at Tommy, who smiled slightly, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Benrey frowned a moment at it, before Tommy sighed softly. </p><p>“My, uh, my dad he’s... trying to get rid of Benrey.” Tommy sniffled softly, pressing himself into Benrey’s chest, who in return wrapped his arms tighter around Tommy, frowning. “He paused time for a second and uh, threatened to hurt Benrey...” Tommy turned his head into Benrey’s chest. </p><p>Gordon was quiet, frowning at the ground. “I did get a weird vibe from him when he saved us...” </p><p>“He’s fuckin creepy.” Bubby muttered around a mouthful of leaf, glancing over at Tommy. “But maybe only to us.” </p><p>Tommy nodded slightly. “He’s a good dad. Not a good guy.” He sighed, glancing over at them, rubbing at one of his eyes with his sleeve. “I knew something like this would happen! I just hoped if I didn’t think about it, he’d get better!” He whined, pressing himself against Benrey’s chest, sniffling softly. </p><p>Sunkist jumped up onto the couch, laying herself on top of Tommy, and therefore on top of Benrey. </p><p>“Well... What to we do?” Gordon asked, looking over at the pile. </p><p>There was silence for a moment, and Gordon was prepared to repeat his question when he heard Tommy’s voice, chillingly flat. </p><p>“I’m not letting him take away my friends. Not again.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hm. Adds more backstory on accident.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Anything</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How did this get so emotional?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They stared at Tommy, who stayed curled up in Benrey’s lap, sniffling softly, trying desperately to stop the tears from flowing. </p><p>“He’s... done this before?” Gordon said calmly, far calmer than he had ever been before. Tommy nodded slightly. </p><p>“I’m older than I say, it’s just... easier to keep turning 36 every year, you know? When you’re old, and you feel like you’re gonna live forever, and your dad thinks that’s the only thing you got from him, it’s just easier to forever be 36. So... I’ve had friends. I tend to lose them to old age a lot, but... sometimes it’s not that. I find a friend that’s like me.” He shifted one hand up, grabbing onto Benrey’s collar, holding it tightly in his hand, Benrey rubbing his back slowly. “And I cling. They won’t die on me, or leave when they realize I’m not aging like them, and sometimes.... He doesn’t like that I found someone else. So he finds a way to get rid of them. That’s why I made Sunkist.” The dog barked softly at the sound of her name, nuzzling her nose against Tommy’s cheek. “He can’t get rid of her if I made her to be perfect!” Tommy slung an arm around Sunkist’s neck, crying softly into her fur. </p><p>Gordon stood. “I’ll be right back.” Again in that far too calm tone he had adopted as Tommy spoke, and stepped outside his apartment. Benrey frowned slightly, manifesting a skeleton just outside of Gordon’s view to watch him as Gordon walked down the hall to step outside, walking half way into the weird little backyard the building had, before screaming. </p><p>Which echoed back into the apartment. </p><p>Gordon came back in, crouching next to the pile of dog and inhuman, carefully getting Tommy to look at him. “We are not going anywhere, alright? I’m promising that to you, right here, right now, everyone as my witness. Unless he physically drags me away from you and destroys me in such a way that I can’t fight my way back, I am not going to go a single place, and I am one hundred percent convinced Benrey, and Coomer, and Bubby feel the exact same.” Gordon’s eyes, fierce with anger and protectiveness flickered between them all, but even without that, they didn’t need the encouragement to nod, voicing their agreements. </p><p>Tommy sniffled softly, then shifted under Sunkist to grab onto Gordon and hug him. Benrey watching Gordon realize just how strong Tommy was, as he hugged him back just as tightly as he could manage. Benrey shifted, pushing Sunkist over lightly in order to grab a hold as well. As soon as he did that, Coomer zoomed into it, wrapping them all in his extendo arms, with Bubby squirmed down under them somehow to hug Tommy directly as well. </p><p>They stayed like that, for a good while, as Tommy cried softly, shaking in their hold. Gordon hummed softly, rocking him and thus the entire group rocked slowly. Bubby grumbled about it gently, but let it happen, hiding his face in someone’s chest, though whose at this point no one was sure, and who ever it was, they didn’t comment on the tears soaking through their shirt. </p><p>After a moment, Benrey began to sing sweet voice over them quietly, trying to get out all the emotions in his chest, and Gordon glanced over at him quietly, before matching the soft singing in his hums, closing his eyes as he did. </p><p>Slowly, the pile seemed to drift off, though none of them moved from the cuddle pile they had formed, even as they drifted to sleep, as the tears slowly dried and they slipped to the floor to fit together, with Sunkist piled over top of them, until Benrey was the only one remaining awake. </p><p>He glanced around the group, all wrapped up in Coomer’s arms, and knew he would do anything to keep them all safe. No matter the cost, he would keep them all safe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>when did Bubby start crying? when did they fall asleep? why did that happen? who knows, not me.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Contracts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm screaming into the void this is slowly pushing itself longer and longer and I am not allowed to start a bubby tumblr ask blog until i finish it (i made a deal cause i have three other ask blogs :/)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took two days for G-Man to get in contact with the team. In that space of time, they had spent a good amount of it planning fail safes for if G-Man tried anything, if he came for Benrey in any sense. Tommy refused to let any more of his friends be destroyed by his father. </p><p>When G-Man showed up, Benrey sat right in the middle of the couch, Tommy’s legs flipped up onto his lap, leaning back against Benrey. Coomer was on the other side of Benrey, with Bubby’s head in his lap, one arm up on the back of the couch behind Benrey. Bubby was chewing on something per usual, though what it was was a mystery. </p><p>G-Man came in and made eye contact with Benrey, not reacting to it, but Benrey’s face split in a huge grin at him, void like bubbles slipped free from between his teeth. Tommy glanced over at him, and grinned. </p><p>“He’s saying hi to you, dad! That’s your color!” Tommy grinned at him, and G-Man smiled back though it was a bit tight. </p><p>“Hello... Benrey.” </p><p>With that, he sat in the carefully places armchair, facing them all. Bubby sat up, choking quietly, though Coomer didn’t look away from G-Man’s eyes, thumping Bubby’s back carefully. “So. What’s the plan here?” </p><p>Benrey glanced around at them under his helmet. Nothing really shocked him until he glanced towards Gordon, who was flat staring at G-Man. No expression, just a flat dead stare. Benrey’s grin only grew bigger. </p><p>G-Man sighed lowly, opening a briefcase, passing a few papers around. As soon as he noticed the briefcase it was gone, and Benrey held back a laugh. Trying to intimidate him now, was he? </p><p>“If you’d like to do this separately?” He looked towards Benrey and Tommy on this one, but all five of them said nothing, other than Bubby’s muttering as he snatched his own paper from the small pile. He wasn’t even really paying attention to the conversation.</p><p>Benrey took his own slip carefully, settling back into his spot, wrapping an arm around Tommy’s legs. Sunkist lifted her head, then lay it back down, eyes focused in on G-Man. She hadn’t looked away from him since he had come in. </p><p>“Fine, fine. Now, As you know, you saw a lot of confidential things in the building, as you fought your way out.” </p><p>“Is that why the military tried to kill us?” Coomer asked innocently, smiling at G-Man as he glanced over, eyes narrowed slightly. “They were shooting at us a lot, and one of them kidnapped Sunkist.” </p><p>Tommy looked up, nodding. “Yeah! He kidnapped Sunkist and, and tried to kill her, but it’s okay cause she’s perfect cause I made her immortal!” Tommy grinned at G-Man, who smiled back gently, turning back to face Coomer. </p><p>“I will admit, there were orders there to eliminate who ever remained, but many thought it was going to just be corrupted humans and... experiments.” G-Man glanced over at Bubby, who snarled back at him. </p><p>“Oh yes, I’m not human, I was made in a test tube, I have a bionic heart, it’s fine to kill me, you can just make another one.” Bubby growled, the only thing stopping him from lunging at G-Man being the arm looped around his waist by Coomer. Twice. </p><p>Benrey hummed softly. “I mean... that included your son though, dude. Not cool.” <br/>“I didn’t know that Tommy was there, and even if he were, it would be perfectly safe for him.” G-Man watched him quietly, and Benrey just kept grinning at him. </p><p>“I’m glad I was there.” Tommy said. “Everyone else came out because of it!” He smiled over at G-Man again, but this time G-Man was too focused on staring at Benrey to smile back at his son. </p><p>“Keep talking. I’d like you out of my apartment as soon as possible.” Gordon said calmly, and Tommy leaned his head back onto Gordon’s shoulder, humming to himself. </p><p>G-Man kept Benrey’s eye for a moment longer before turning away. “However, to keep your silence about this... instance, it has been determined that we will be keeping you on the payroll... Though without the job part of that. It’s simpler to keep you out of the building now.” </p><p>Bubby was glaring dangerously at his little slip of paper, and Coomer hummed, leaning his chin on Bubby’s shoulder, looking down at it. “This of course includes Bubby right? He is my husband after all, it would be rude to separate us.” </p><p>G-Man stared, eyes narrowing. “There is not official paperwork for anything of-” </p><p>“Oh, did I forget to file that?” Coomer grinned at him, shifting a bit to hold a hand out to Benrey, whose hand no clipped through the wall and grabbed a file he had hidden there that night. He passed it to G-Man, who flipped it open, frowning at it. Inside was in fact a marriage certificate, and G-Man simply stared at it for a moment. </p><p>“I mean, they did file a birth certificate for him when he was created, so this is legal!” Coomer grinned, choosing not to mention it had been him all those years ago who filed that, two years afterwards. </p><p>“Be that as it may-” </p><p>“I’m not fucking going back and you can’t make me.” Bubby glared over at him. “You can’t threaten the fucking tube at me, it was destroyed while we were in there.” Bubby glared at him for a moment, and G-Man stared back, before Tommy’s voice got his attention. </p><p>“Coomer and Bubby are cute, though, dad, plus it’ll be good for him! Bubby’s never been outside Black Mesa until now!” Tommy turned his puppy dog eyes on to the max here, and Benrey just sat there grinning at it. Those things hit hard. </p><p>G-Man wavered after barely a second. “Fine.” He spat out, almost disgusted by the word, but Tommy grinned, squirming in place and laying his head back against Gordon’s shoulder. “I will simply... need you to sign this...” He held out a stack of papers, and before anyone else could grab it, Coomer’s extendo arm reached out and snagged it, tugging it over to him and pulling out a pair of reading glasses. </p><p>Benrey turned his head into his shoulder, hiding a snicker as Coomer began to read.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Dr. Coomer does not need those glasses. He just thinks they're neat :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Misunderstandings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Five chapters in one day. Stop my sinful hands.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took Coomer two hours to read through and debating points in the contract with G-Man. Bubby leaned on his shoulder the entire time, smiling up at him with pure adoration in his eyes as Coomer debated everything that he could find to be debated. Coomer’s approach was all smiles and kindness, but Gordon would pop in sometimes, voice cold enough to rival G-Man’s own. </p><p>And thus, Benrey watched them battle it out over the exact state of the contract they were being forced to sign, grinning. Tommy would lean over on occasion, showing him some new shape he had scrambles his tangles into, passing them off to Benrey in order for him to scramble them into some other new shape as well. </p><p>When, finally, finally, they had bartered everything down to what would benefit them best, Coomer nodded, smiling over at him. “Well, you look like you have a deal. Pen?” Bubby produced a half chewed pen from his pocket, which both he and Coomer signed with before passing it down the line. Gordon than passed the pen and the contract to G-Man, who was forced to sign with the pen that was unfortunately close to leaking. </p><p>No one told him that it was leaking slightly where they held it. </p><p>G-Man tucked the papers away, and Tommy grinned up at him, waving one hand and looking back down at his tangle. “See ya dad!” G-Man sighed softly, waving back, and finally disappearing. </p><p>There was silence for a moment, before Benrey glanced over towards Bubby. “Gay ass.” </p><p>“I will fucking end you.” Bubby shifted to launch himself at Benrey, who instead squirmed closer to Tommy, stealing him from Gordon’s lap to hide behind. Bubby growled softly, and slouched back down next to Coomer. “Look, I am allowed to love my husband, you mother-”</p><p>“How do we know he’ll honor that?” Gordon said quietly, and Benrey glanced back at him, chilled by the look in his eyes. </p><p>“Well, uh, I signed it too! So he can’t change anything with it also affecting me!” Tommy grinned at Gordon, but leaned forwards slightly. “Are you alright, Mr. Freeman?” </p><p>Gordon sighed, before smiling softly, nodding. “Yeah... I just gotta calm down. He pisses me off.” </p><p>“Uhm... speaking of...” Bubby spoke up, frowning over at Gordon. “You were never this angry at us. You got angry, I’m sure of it, but we have never seen this, this cold anger of yours.” </p><p>“Yeah.” Benrey shifted, looking over at Gordon, who was frowning confused at them, leaning back against the couch cushion. “Even when we... got you ambushed...” </p><p>“Well, I’m not gonna lie and say I’m not angry about that, I mean.” He lifted his right arm. “I lost my arm from it, but I’m not that angry about it. You didn’t know they would do that, and I did have trackers in the HEV suit. It makes sense.” </p><p>They stared at him for a moment, and he glanced around them quietly, frowning. </p><p>“You’re... not pissed off we got your arm cut off?” </p><p>“You said you didn’t know they were gonna do it, and Benrey thought it was gonna grow back.” Gordon shrugged. “It could be a lot worse. I could’ve died, and I didn’t. But G-Man hurt Tommy in a lot of ways.” The anger in Gordon’s eyes returned, freezing them over in a second. Bubby shuddered, ducking himself under Coomer’s arm. “So he gets this anger. You guys get the anger where I just need to scream.” </p><p>Benrey stared at him for a moment, watching as he stretched, shrugging, completely uncaring of the bomb he dropped on them. “So... you’re... that’s not real anger?” </p><p>“Well, I am anger, just... not pissed off. Angry and Pissed off is different. I’m angry and frustrated when something like the ambush during a traumatic event happens. I’m pissed off when a man knowingly hurts his son and keeps him isolated for no reason than wanting to keep his son to himself.” Gordon shrugged. “There’s a different in events there.” </p><p>Bubby peeked out from behind Coomer’s arm. “So.... you aren’t that angry at us?” </p><p>“Nah, not really. It’s gonna take some getting used to, but I can handle it. You guys are too important to me to ruin it over a misunderstanding.” </p><p>“... Gordon a misunderstanding doesn’t usually end in cutting someone’s arm off.” </p><p>“Yeah, well, look at who we are.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So yea! Gordon's anger is different. Plus he loves his friends. </p><p>Now... soon comes hell :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Defensive Sleepovers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Welp. Here we go.</p><p>Also at everyone being like 'how are you updating this fast' it's called hyperfixation, babey</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gordon let them stay in his apartment. They ended up curled up together in the living room, unable to sleep without the sounds of someone else around them. It was easier to set up in the living room than try and all pile into Gordon’s room. </p><p>It was also a defense mechanism. </p><p>G-Man hadn’t done anything for the past week they had stayed hidden in Gordon’s apartment, only leaving all together to get groceries, which had been fun, to everyone except Gordon. Still, if they were all together in one room, it was less likely that they would get hurt or taken, any of them. </p><p>At least that was the thought. </p><p>Tommy was out first, per usual, as he was buried underneath Sunkist’s fur and weight. Coomer and Bubby would curl up together and talk quietly until one of their voices would taper out and then the other would simply snuggled closer and pass out with them. </p><p>Gordon didn’t sleep easy. It was understandable, at this point, but he had a hard time falling asleep, and he couldn’t do it in the complete dark, so Benrey often played some sort of game on Gordon’s TV, lighting up the room enough for him to sleep. He didn’t comment on the way Gordon lay next to him, nor the fact that Gordon would often hold onto his shirt before he fell asleep. </p><p>Which left Benrey as the only one awake. Once he was sure everyone was actually asleep, he’d settle and drift into that half-sleep of his. However, this time, it felt like he couldn’t. Something was blocking that, and Benrey had a good guess on who. He groaned softly, head falling back. “God you are a fucking asshole.” </p><p>He opened his eyes again to find the room monochrome and G-Man standing in front of him, pissed. “I told you. to leave. my son. alone.” </p><p>“Yeah, and uh, I didn’t. Tommy’s my friend, dude, I’m not gonna just abandon him like that. He’s gotta have someone whose immortal like him.” </p><p>“He has me.” </p><p>Benrey laughed aloud at that, shaking his head. “Sure, sure motherfucker.” He stood, though he knew that G-Man would still be taller than him when he did. He glared up at him, the shadow across his eyes not moving. “Just tell me how well killing all his friends and ruining his life is going for you, buddy.” </p><p>And the world went dark. </p><p>When Benrey woke up, he didn’t move, not for a moment. It looked like he was back on Xen, but in a place in he had never been before, which was rare enough as it was. But it was completely enclosed, no obvious exits that he saw. Still, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. </p><p>Benrey sat up slowly, not seeing G-Man anywhere obvious. It was weird to send him here, of all places. This was home in a weird sense, after all. He just had to no-clip through the walls and find where he-</p><p>His hand pressed against the walls, and didn’t sink through. Benrey stared at it, eyes wide. He couldn’t get through. </p><p>He was stuck here. </p><p>Benrey glanced around again, slowly walking the perimeter, trying to press himself through the wall and finding nothing, no point he could no-clip out, press his way through the walls of his own home. What in the world did G-Man have to hold it down like this? </p><p>He sang out a line of sweet voice carefully, then nodded to himself. He still had that at least. It felt like it was just in these walls, something keeping him locked in, and if he kept chipping at it, he’d find his way out. </p><p>Eventually.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I wanna murder G-Man with my bare hands, did y'all know that?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Pocket Dimensions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He’s gone!” Gordon woke to Tommy’s distressed voice, sitting up quickly, eyes darting around. He saw Bubby, part of his hand in his mouth, with Coomer trying to distract him enough to trade it for something safer, and Tommy standing near the hallway entrance, with Sunkist pacing in front of him, but no Benrey. </p><p>No Benrey. </p><p>Gordon stood, eyes darting around. “You sure? Not in the bathroom, hiding in any of the rooms or anything like that?” </p><p>Tommy nodded. “Gone. I, I can feel it, Mr. Freeman, my dad was here, and it’s not just left over from before, it’s new, he was here, and now he’s not and neither is Benrey!” Before Tommy could spiral too far, Gordon stepped over the various bedding on the floor and dragged Tommy into a hug. Tommy was taller than him, but he bent, burying his face in Gordon’s shoulder, trying to breathe. </p><p>“It’s alright. I promised you that none of us would leave, and I intend to keep that promise, alright? We just have to find where G-Man would take him. Is that something you could do?” Tommy sniffled softly, clinging onto Gordon but nodding slightly. </p><p>“I think so... It shouldn’t be too hard.” Gordon led him back to the couch, sitting there with him. </p><p>“Alright. You can find him.” Gordon smiled softly, and Tommy nodded, shifting a bit in his spot and closing his eyes. Gordon glanced back towards Coomer and Bubby, making sure they were alright-they were, Bubby having been convinced that biting at himself was not productive in helping find Benrey again, and was instead chewing on a pen, and Coomer just holding onto Bubby as if letting him go meant him disappearing as well-before looking back to Tommy. </p><p>They were silent a moment, before Tommy nodded. “He took him... took him back to Xen, but I can’t bring your all with me. It’s too dangerous, cause I’d have to do it one by one! The, the place he’s in is really heavily warded to keep him in and us out...” Tommy frowned slightly, looking to Gordon, who frowned, but nodded. </p><p>“Be quick, alright?” </p><p>“I’m... gonna take him somewhere where even Dad can’t get, just me and Sunkist and then I’ll come back for you guys okay?” Gordon nodded, and in a blink, Tommy was gone. </p><p>Gordon sat there a moment, before Coomer spoke up. “Gordon, do you know where a first aid kit is?” He glanced back and nodded, getting up. As he stepped into the hallway, he heard Bubby say something up to Coomer, but didn’t catch the words, and Coomer didn’t respond. </p><p>He distracted himself cleaning out the bite mark on Bubby’s hand-”Why the hell did they give you such sharp teeth?” “Why the hell not?”-and making sure that they were okay. He even checked in with Harmony and Joshua, both of whom were alright. </p><p>He paced. </p><p>He fiddled with a tangle Tommy left behind. </p><p>He made sandwiches to take with them, just in case. </p><p>Gordon couldn’t sit still for too long. If he did, the ideas of what could have happened to Tommy and Benrey boiled up and out of his head, and he couldn’t freak out Coomer and Bubby too much, since Bubby did seem scared. <br/>“He... can’t put me back in my tube, right?” He had heard Bubby say as he paced by them. </p><p>So any hypotheticals he came up with, they had probably also came up with. No need to worry and exacerbate the problem, he just had to wait. Wait until Tommy came back to collect them. </p><p>He didn’t have the time to realize something was wrong before something cracked against the back of his head, and he was out.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey if it makes you sad, just think of the G-Man waving a bat around. That makes me giggle for some reason.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Breathing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey random side note, the chapter names are literally just for me. They help me keep track of what's going on. That's why they make no god damn sense</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tommy stepped into his view, and Benrey grinned up at him. “Hey dude... Uh, what’s up?” There was no response from Tommy, other than to fling himself at Benrey and cling, arms wrapped tightly around him. With that, he stood up straight, thus lifting Benrey off his feet, and they were gone. </p><p>Benrey wasn’t entirely sure where they were, but Tommy set him back down, but didn’t pull away from the hug, shoulders shaking. Benrey hummed softly, wrapping his arms around Tommy carefully. “I’m still here bro, I’m fine, you got me in time.” </p><p>He glanced around a moment, frowning at how bare bones the place they were in looked. It was... almost Tommy’s apartment, but as if he hadn’t lived there, with none of the bright colors and random pictures hanging from the walls. Luckily enough, this meant that Benrey could just walk backwards and settle onto the couch, letting Tommy cling onto him the entire time. </p><p>“I thought I was too late, I thought he’d already hurt you, or killed you, and I didn’t get you in time, I thought I lost you!” Tommy cried into his chest, and Benrey hummed, surrounding them in sweet voice </p><p>
  <em>You’re okay </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’ve got you </em>
</p><p>
  <em>It’s safe now </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nothing can hurt you anymore </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’m okay </em>
</p><p>
  <em>We’re safe </em>
</p><p>Tommy barely lifted his head to watch the colors circle him, but slowly relaxed as they did, sniffling softly. “I just... I can’t keep doing this. I don’t wanna lose anymore...” He paused, before scrambling to his feet. “Oh no.” </p><p>Benrey frowned at him for a moment, before glancing around, realizing the issue. </p><p>The other three weren’t there. Sunkist wasn’t there. </p><p>Tommy almost left without him, but Benrey managed to snag onto his sleeve in time for him to disappear back into Gordon’s apartment. </p><p>The blankets were everywhere, one of the pillows had been shredded, and Sunkist lay in the middle of it, breathing heavily, her eyes closed. Tommy shouted, scrambling over to her, and Benrey growled lowly, stalking off to search the apartment. </p><p>No one was in the bedrooms or the bathroom, and no one was answering his calls. As he stepped into the kitchen, however, he froze, eyes going wide. </p><p>There was a puddle of blood on the tile. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hey i don't make promises, but im doing this one: im not killing Sunkist </p><p>she's immortal bro</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Concussion Cuddles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hm... Bubby hasn't gotten enough light in this I think. Neither has Coomer but he'll get a moment soonish I think.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Come on, Gordon, wake up.” </p><p>“He probably has a concussion.” </p><p>“I know, that just means he needs to wake up more!” </p><p>“Who knew the bastard would use a fucking bat. Always figured he’d be one to not want to get his hands dirty.” </p><p>“Maybe he’s getting desperate? Who knows anymore. Come on Gordon!” </p><p>Gordon groaned softly as he rolled over, covering one of his ears. “Fuck, Dr. Coomer, you’re so loud...” He complained, slowly opening his eyes. Doing so hurt, and he couldn’t look around properly without his head pounding. However, he soon realized he was not in his house anymore. <br/>They were back on Xen. </p><p>“Get up.” Bubby muttered, grabbing Gordon’s arm and tugging him into a sitting position. Gordon shifted his hand back to feel the back of his head, feeling part of his hair slick with blood, hissing softly as he came in contact with it. “Stop- you fucking dumb ass.” Bubby grabbed his hand and pushed it away from his head. Gordon glared at him, eyes narrowed. </p><p>“What the fuck happened?” His memory was a bit blurry, but he could remember a bit of it. </p><p>Coomer sighed softly, settling down more comfortably in his spot. “Well... after Tommy left, G-Man showed up. He got you first, and we heard you fall in the kitchen. I thought you had hurt yourself with your pacing and got up to see and... Well, now we’re here.” Coomer frowned slightly, glancing around. “He left us here, I think, but I’m not entirely sure where here is.” </p><p>“It’s... where we went during the Benrey thing. This is that room.” Bubby muttered, leaning back against the weird fleshy wall. “I’m fucking soaked, the water level here changes so much.” </p><p>“Well, we are on an alien world. Who knows how physics work here!” Coomer grinned, and Gordon shot a look at him, ignoring the ping of pain it caused. </p><p>“Hopefully the same.” Gordon muttered, bringing his hand up towards the back of his head, only to have Bubby slap it away again. “Stop it.” </p><p>“You’re gonna make it worse.” Bubby muttered. </p><p>“Aw, you care about him!” </p><p>“Shut up, Harold.” </p><p>“Is this... really a conversation about we should be having right now?” Bubby and Coomer turned to look at him, and Gordon shrunk under their view slightly. “We’re on an alien planet, I’m just saying.” </p><p>“Well, who got us off last time? There’s no way out of here without G-Man, or presumably Tommy, and maybe Benrey. None of us are them. We can’t get off.” Bubby glared at the wall past Gordon, who sighed and nodded slowly, carefully, in order to not aggravate his head wound too much. </p><p>“Fine, fine... I don’t wanna just sit here and wait though.” He glanced over at Coomer.</p><p>“Well... it’s all we can do I think.” Coomer shifted, then leaned against Bubby’s shoulder. Bubby wrapped an arm around Coomer than glanced over towards Gordon, sighed, and lifted his other arm. </p><p>“Get over here.” Gordon stared for a moment, before shifting over in the low water and laying his head on Bubby’s other shoulder, closing his eyes as Bubby wrapped his arm around Gordon’s shoulders. “I’ll wake you up if you sleep too long, alright?” Gordon nodded slightly, letting the pounding of his head, and Coomer quietly reciting Wikipedia articles to Bubby, lull him back to sleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Bubby care Gordon</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Blood In The Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For some reason this had to be in Bubby's POV and for the life of me, I could not tell you why. It just... I had to be.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bubby didn't care about people. The only person that he had ever let close enough was Coomer, and, okay, maybe he was married to him. Maybe he was in love. That was allowed. Everyone had the one exception.</p><p>But Gordon or Tommy or Benrey? They weren't factored into this.</p><p>Gordon wasn't bleeding anymore, thank god, but Bubby hesitated on washing out his wound with the weird water here. He didn't know what this was made of, what could be in here, and he didn't want to make it worse. Instead, Gordon lay his head on Bubby's boney shoulder and fell asleep. God dammit he has friends now.</p><p>Coomer looked up at him, and Bubby shot a glare back. "He's sleeping. It's not like he cares if you're his friend. I'm sure he'd prefer it, dear."</p><p>"Yeah, well, not the best time to be realizing you care about someone, when they've got a head wound and a eldritch bastard on their back." Bubby muttered, staring resolutely forwards. Coomer was far too good at looking at him and knowing everything that went on in his head. "He's got a concussion, and we're stuck on an alien planet. I'm allowed to be a little caring."</p><p>Coomer laughed softly, shifting one arm behind his back to wrap around him, careful of where Gordon slept. "I'm not saying anything. You're the one who said it, not me." Bubby snarled at him, pouting. He attempted to sink further down, hide, but Gordon started to sink with him, and then slowly started to slide like he was going to slip into the water, and, again, there was no way Bubby was going to let whatever the hell could be in this water into Gordon's fucking head wound.</p><p>Coomer laughed at him again, as Bubby shifted, lifting Gordon up a bit, jostling him enough to wake him unfortunately.</p><p>"Huh, what?" He lifted his head, pupils a bit too dilated to be healthy in this light. He turned his head too fast and winced, and Bubby huffed.</p><p>"Shut up." He muttered to Coomer, helping him sit up. "Gordon?"</p><p>"Mhm... head hurts... Jesus fuck." He muttered, blinking a few times. Bubby watched him quietly, quickly categorizing each thing he noticed with his concussion.</p><p>"I'd assume so, you got hit in the head with a baseball bat." Bubby snarked at him, and grinned when Gordon huffed back.</p><p>"Oh, well, I had no clue, Bubby, thank you so much."</p><p>Perhaps they would have kept talking if Coomer hadn't frozen against Bubby's side. Bubby glanced over, waving a hand at Gordon to keep him quiet.</p><p>G-Man must've returned.</p><p>Bubby stood quickly, Coomer grabbing his wrist to pull himself up, and Gordon taking the offered hand to stand. He wobbled on his feet a moment, before stabilizing, eyes narrowed towards the noise of someone wading through the water. Bubby assumed that he would find that above him, but he had used a bat, so who knows anymore.</p><p>G-Man came into view, slowly but surely, watching them quietly. Besides him, he felt the other two shift, flanking him on either side. "Well. I suppose I waited too long to... talk to you."</p><p>"Fuck off." Gordon muttered, glaring at him.</p><p>"Now. I just wish to talk. Without Benrey's influence. He's a blight that requires... removing. And you had the chance to remove him."</p><p>Bubby growled softly, eyes narrowing slightly. He didn't like when people talked like that towards his friends, and at this point, he wasn't going to try and deny Benrey's friendship. And maybe, maybe, that anger connected back to some sort of primal prototype thing in the back of his mind, and he knew he had to protect them. Coomer didn't need protecting, but Gordon? Gordon was human, Gordon was injured.</p><p>"This is why I didn't trust you... to handle the outside world." He heard G-Man say, and he didn't hesitate before lunging.</p><p>Something lit on fire, he could smell the burning but what it was he didn't know anymore. Bubby was focused on one thing: destroy the threat.</p><p>He knew that it wouldn't work well, but maybe it was surprise to be yanked back by Coomer. Bubby snarled softly, but Coomer pointed, and he focused on Gordon who-</p><p>A crack and G-Man stumbled back, bringing a hand up to his nose. Gordon stumbled back, a little unbalanced, but glaring fiercely, and Bubby felt something akin to pride at realizing that Gordon has punched an eldritch being in the face and from that crack?</p><p>He broke G-Man's nose.</p><p>Bubby laughed aloud, grinning at him, going quiet quickly when he saw the dark glare that Gordon had focused at G-Man. Even G-Man looked surprised at that cold glare.</p><p>"You... are not a fucking father." Gordon muttered. "Benrey is not a threat to you. He's not a threat to us, he's not a threat to Tommy. You have given your child trauma for what? You hurt him for what reason? Why? For you?" Gordon stared at him, eyes narrowed. "You hurt him just because you felt like you deserved it. You deserved Tommy's life, and you don’t! You don't deserve shit! You don’t... you don't get to put yourself first with your kids. The moment you have a child, they're the first thing you care about, because when they're young? They can't do that. You’ve, you hurt him so much and it doesn't matter to you at all, does it?" Gordon laughed softly, and Bubby froze. That...</p><p>That was sweet voice. Bubby didn't know how to translate it, but god, there was the void that Tommy had said was G-Man's name in it, and... Gordon was using sweet voice.</p><p>"Mr. Freeman-"</p><p>"Shut up!" Gordon held his head in his hands, sweet voice slipping around his head, surrounding him. "You don't deserve me listening to you anymore! I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that you didn't plan this shit, I know it! I know you did, You-"</p><p>"Silence." And Gordon went silent. Whatever it was that made him slowly losing that human bit wasn't yet strong enough to counter someone like G-Man. "You are pathetic. Thinking that you can fight someone like me?" He looked dangerous, blood dripping down his chin, nose at an odd angle.</p><p>Luckily, Bubby was more dangerous.</p><p>Whatever monologue that G-Man was planning was cut off as Bubby flew at him, hands encased in fire, grabbing onto G-Man's collar, lighting the suit on fire under his hands, as he pushed G-Man back, snarling at him.</p><p>It wasn't exactly a blur, but Bubby could not tell you what he did. Flesh tore under his hands and clothing shredded, and maybe a few times his fire went out as they struggled in the water, but fighting something so inhuman left him confused and disoriented. G-Man fought back, something Bubby was surprised to find. He felt his own flesh tear, blood both his and G-Man's mix into the water, pain radiating from his arms and ribs.</p><p>At this point, the only thought in Bubby's mind was keeping his own safe.</p><p>He knew Coomer helped, he felt the metal of his arms trying to drag G-Man away, help in some way and faintly, he heard a gun shot. Which one had a gun at this point? Either way, it didn't hit either of them, and Bubby snarled, sinking his teeth into some sort of flesh, relishing in the cry it caused.</p><p>"ENOUGH!"</p><p>And red hot pain erupted across his chest, fire but unsafe, broken, and it hurt, it hurt and-</p><p>Dark.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Don't kill me?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Muscle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ah!! I'm pretty sure there's only two or three chapters left!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bright flash hurt Gordon’s eyes to look at for too long, but he still squinted against it, trying to see Bubby in the epicenter. He heard him scream, and suddenly, sickeningly, the scream cut off, followed by uncomfortable silence.<br/>
He couldn’t see Bubby </p><p>The light dimmed, and Gordon let his eyes adjust, jerking back a bit as Coomer cried out “Bubby!” </p><p>Gordon looked close and realized Bubby was on the ground, blood seeping around him. He couldn’t see exactly what the extent of his injuries was, but there was skin burned free from his body, the muscle underneath moving slightly, and Gordon had to look away before he got sick. </p><p>G-Man fared better, but only just. He too was covered in blood, scratches and the few bite marks here and there that bled a sluggish black, and Gordon looked up towards the anger in his eyes. “Fuck...” He muttered, glancing towards Coomer, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of Bubby’s still body. </p><p>“You thought. You could hurt me.” G-Man grinned, eyes shining, body shifting. He was inhuman, always had been, and Gordon couldn’t quite handle the implications of what he really looked like. He was still human shaped, but oh so obviously not human now. “You thought. You could get away with it.” He grinned, the first time Gordon had seen him smile with teeth, and god they were nearly as sharp as Benrey’s. For a split second, he wondered what Tommy’s teeth looked at, before forcing himself to focus back in on the being currently pissed of and ready to kill him. </p><p>“Gordon... I need to get to Bubby.” Coomer muttered, and Gordon glanced at him, nodding slightly. For some reason, Coomer’s eyes tracked upwards, looking at something, but Gordon turned back to G-Man, eyes narrowed. </p><p>“Come on, dude, I broke your nose, and I can break more.” Taunting an eldritch being was never a good idea, but never in Gordon’s life had he considered himself smart. G-Man focused on him, and Gordon grinned, feeling like something was bubbling up and out of his throat, before lunging at him again, aware of just how stupid this was. In the same moment, Coomer lunged forwards, trying to move Bubby’s body to safety, or at least further away from the fight. </p><p>Gordon barely managed much, just another hit to G-Man’s chest before he was up, being held by his throat. </p><p>“I gave you... such a present.” G-Man growled, and pain erupted in Gordon’s right arm, warmth dripping down his side. G-Man grinned at him, cutting off his air as Gordon scratched at G-Man’s arm, eyes wide, soft color floating around them. “It’s unsurprising that I had to take it away. You are far too much trouble for anything you have to offer to be worth it.” </p><p>In a flash, he saw something grab onto G-Man’s neck from behind and yank, and in surprise, G-Man let him go. Gordon collapsed onto the ground, coughing and bringing his hand up to his throat, as well as his stump, smearing blood across his throat. He couldn’t dwell on this too much, as he stood, eyes darting around, and saw Coomer with one arm wrapped around G-Man’s neck, saying something, but a combination of blood loss and the previous head injury made it near impossible to hear. </p><p>Still, G-Man didn’t seem to have time for it, as he grabbed at Coomer’s arm, holding onto it and starting to crush the metal under his hand. Coomer’s eyes widened, and Gordon launched himself at G-Man’s back, dripping blood as he went. </p><p>He never quite got there, as, a flash later, and he was next to Bubby and Coomer, who also looked a bit confused as to how he had gotten there. Further away, though closer than Gordon would have liked, he spotted the reason. </p><p>Tommy and Benrey had finally found them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And then there's Bubby! He's dead-  (He's not I promise i Love my tube bastard too much for that)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Broken</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Is Bubby okay? Good question not getting an answer.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey skidded back into the living room, eyes wide and panicked. “There’s blood in there. A lot of it, like, head wound kind of blood.” Tommy looked up from Sunkist’s side, where she was still panting and whining softly. </p><p>“He wouldn’t... I didn’t think he’d stoop this low.” Tommy sniffled, looking up at him. Benrey sighed, crouching down next to him. </p><p>“How is she?” Benrey sang softly, teal and green, the sweet voice gently settling on Sunkist’s fur as he sang. Tommy nodded a bit. </p><p>“She’ll be okay, but I think we should take her to my area... cause that’s where she’s gonna be safe from him just in case. Then we can go back to Xen and look for them.” Tommy shifted, dead lifting Sunkist into his arms as if she weighed nothing. Benrey stood with him, grabbing onto Tommy’s arm as the room shifted around them. </p><p>Tommy was careful, and lay Sunkist down on the bed, glancing around. “We... we don’t know if they’re hurt. Bubby... Bubby has special conditions.” A room off of the living room sprang into existence. Benrey frowned at him, and Tommy smiled softly. “It’s alright. I can handle it. It’s still forming.” For a second, Benrey paused, then leaned down and sang another teal and green beam down to Sunkist, just in case. She was immortal, but that didn’t mean she needed to be in pain. </p><p>Benrey nodded slightly, holding out his hand to Tommy. “Let’s get back to Xen then.” he muttered, and then, they were there. <br/>On the surface nothing looked different, but Benrey could feel the life in Xen shift and change with him. It was home, and it was angry. With that, he grabbed onto Tommy and slipped through walls with him. Now, strictly speaking, Tommy couldn’t noclip, but Tommy also didn’t need to breathe, so it was alright. </p><p>Benrey found them quickly. The room he had staged his own boss battle in and the bastard was stealing it, not even using the damn place to it’s full potential.</p><p>Tommy gasped softly by his side, and Benrey zeroed in on Gordon first. His arm was bleeding again, open and bloody, and part of Coomer’s arm was being crushed by G-Man. The worst had to be Bubby, unmoving and unnaturally red. It took a moment to register the lack of skin, and when he did, Benrey froze, and then, Tommy was down there, and the other two were near Bubby, safer from the fight that was about to go down. </p><p>Benrey landed down next to them, growing quickly to fill the space a bit better. Honestly, it was a waste of an area this tall if you weren’t going to grow to fit. G-Man frowned at him, unamused, but Benrey focused on one thing. </p><p>“Bro, your nose is fuckin broken.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I just... thought it would be funny to end it here askfwoeif</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Particles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Uh.. one more chapter babey</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Benrey heard Gordon laugh aloud behind him, and grinned. “Bro, you got your nose broken by a mortal, how fuckin cringe is that dude?” </p><p>“I told you to leave my son alone.” G-Man snarled, and Tommy snarled right back. </p><p>“He’s my friend!” Tommy glared at him, and G-Man looked down from Benrey to him. </p><p>“You don’t know what lies he has told you, Tommy-” </p><p>“I saw it. I saw it all. Every single time you’ve paused time, I’ve seen it. I watched you threaten him!” Tommy gestured back at Benrey, and for a moment, there was real fear in G-Man’s eyes. “I took a lot from you, you know. I just... You aren’t a good person! You’re not even a good dad! You took so much from me!” Tommy was crying, and Benrey growled softly, though it rumbled the room at his size, sweet voice bubbling between his teeth. </p><p>“I was protecting you, Tommy. This being is just going to use you-” </p><p>“And you aren’t?” </p><p>G-Man took a step back, eyes going wide. “And what do you mean by that?” </p><p>Tommy sniffled softly, rubbing at his eyes. “You ever wondered why I MADE a perfect dog? That could never die? And you still tried to hurt her! You hurt Sunkist!” </p><p>Tommy’s glow was never bright enough to be noticed, really, but now it was near blinding, his eyes gone in the shine, form rippling like water. Benrey grinned, his own form shifting around them all, and G-Man just growled. </p><p>“You hurt Sunkist, you hurt Gordon and Benrey and Bubby! You just want me to be alone like you, but you’re only alone because you’re horrible! You just, you hurt people and you hurt me, and it just ruins everything!” Tommy cried, his voice turning staticy and loud, and for a moment, Benrey worried about Gordon and Coomer-disregarding Bubby since at this point, Benrey was more worried about him being alive right now-but Tommy seemed to catch himself, reeling in the anger a bit. </p><p>“You are too dependent on mortal beings. You think that you know what’s best for you, but I am you father-” </p><p>“Benrey isn’t mortal! Neither is Bubby, or Coomer or Sunkist, and you HURT THEM ANYWAYS!” Light exploded out, and Benrey shifted slightly, blocking the others from it’s view, turning his head away himself. Despite everything, he knew where he stood. Tommy and G-Man were more powerful than him in the long run, but him and Tommy against G-Man had to work. For their sake. </p><p>Still, he heard Gordon cry out, and realized that sound still traveled. “Tommy.” <br/>The soft voice and Tommy reeled himself in, bright golden tears streaking down his face, sniffling softly. “You... you say you were born of stars like me, but sometimes I wonder if you were born of the black holes on the edges of the universe and stole me away from the stars I called home.” Tommy said softly, shaking his head. “You are nothing but dark, consuming everything around you, killing everything you get into your grasp, ruining lives and homes and love, and you claim I came from you.” Tommy looked up at him, shaking his head. “And I find myself doubting it every time we play this game of yours.” </p><p>G-Man froze, completely, staring at Tommy with wide eyes of void, form flickering around him, and Benrey grinned, beginning to pick at the atoms on the edges, tearing him apart slowly as Tommy distracted him. </p><p>“We are not chess pieces. We are alive, and breathing, and you think yourself above it all, because you put yourself there, and didn’t think for a moment that you’re up there because of your own mindset. If you stayed on the same level, sure your heart gets broken sometimes when you lose someone, but in the end it is oh so worth it to love, rather than to hate and destroy... but that is the different, isn’t it? Between you and me, between the black hole and the stars. One hurts, and the other gives life.” </p><p>“You forget, the star may eventually turn into the black hole.” G-Man was destabilizing, his own black tears streaking down his face as Tommy stood there, emitting enough light to outshine the darkness. </p><p>“Not all the time, and I refuse to become you. I refuse to be another version of you, broken and hurt because you couldn’t withstand the idea of loss. You ruin everything you touch, and I will not let you ruin anything else.” </p><p>And Benrey closed his eyes, the atoms of G-Man’s form turning to sand in his fingertips, the time slowly and stopping and speeding, all at once, as Tommy smiled sadly at the man he once called his father, and forced his form to dissolve until there is nothing, just particles floating in the air.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Tommy just needed to be really poetic here. I know it feels kinda anticlimactic, but G-Man, despite everything, loves his son. He won't fight back against him.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. The Tube Room</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And so we reach the end.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gordon stared, watching as the light died from around them, and Benrey shrank again, until he could hug Tommy close to him, both of them sinking into the water. It felt as if Tommy had been talking directly into his brain, the words still rattling around his skull, and slowly, he realized Tommy was crying. </p><p>He tried to stand to go over to him, to help, but felt woozy as he stood, sinking back down to the floor. He glanced over towards Coomer, but he had Bubby’s head in his lap, slowly brushing back his hair with his undamaged arm, hands shaking as he did. Closer up, Gordon could see just how bad it was, skin hanging from wounds and blood slowly dying the water around them pink. Gordon looked away quickly, back towards the other two. </p><p>“Hey!” Benrey looked up, eyes darting towards Gordon, his eyes going wide as he followed something up, just like Coomer had. “Can we... cry some where that we won’t bleed out in?” He asked, and Tommy managed a laugh, pulling away from Benrey to stand, slipping over to him, blinking at Gordon in surprise. He shook it off quickly, before moving over towards them, glancing towards Bubby. </p><p>“Is... he?” </p><p>“Still breathing.” Coomer said softly, looking up towards Tommy. “But I’m not sure for how long. We don’t have his tube and-” </p><p>“I got it.” Tommy smiled softly, kneeling in the water around them, rubbing at his eyes, glancing around at the wounds, and nodded. He glanced to Benrey a moment, who stood next to Gordon, and nodded. </p><p>In a moment, they were in a different room, soaked and bleeding across the carpet, but Tommy seemed to believe it was okay. He looked towards Bubby and frowned slightly, looking over at Coomer. “We gotta pick him up, and it’s probably going to hurt him, but I have a replica of the tube in the other room.” </p><p>Out of the water, Bubby looked far worse, skin peeled off on his arms, legs, and chest, some of the muscle looking burnt as well. Gordon closed his eyes, though mostly from his own dizziness, hand coming up to clutch at his bleeding stump. Benrey frowned at it, singing teal and green quietly, letting it settle around his arm. Gordon smiled up at him loopily. “Thank you...” He murmured, ignoring the soft gasp the Benrey gave. </p><p>Tommy glanced over as he lifted Bubby, frowning at the soft groan he gave in his arms at having to touch exposed muscle. He smiled softly, walking backwards with Coomer into the other room, calling out to Benrey. “Bring Gordon in, pink to blue!” <br/>Benrey sighed softly, lifting Gordon, who was half passed out by now, though he wasn’t bleeding nearly as heavily. It was still worrisome. As he got Gordon into the room, he saw Tommy and Coomer setting up Bubby’s tube as quickly as they could, both mumbling soft apologies as Bubby’s eyes flickered open, tears streaking down his face. </p><p>Finally, they got it set up, and Bubby closed his eyes again slowly, the general numbing of the tube liquid lulling him back to sleep. Hopefully he could recover from it, but Benrey didn’t have high hopes for a fully recovery. Even in the tube, it could only do so much. </p><p>He set Gordon up against the wall, and lifted his head at a soft bark, Sunkist limping her way into the room to flop next to him. Tommy smiled softly at her, but didn’t pet her, covered in blood as he was. Benrey shifted, lifting Gordon’s arm slightly, and Tommy hummed, settling next to him, resting a hand just above the ruined flesh. “I got it. I’ll probably pass out after this though... don’t think I’ve ever used this much.” Benrey nodded, looking over at Coomer, who smiled, leaning with his back against Bubby’s tube. </p><p>They were silent for a moment, as Gordon’s arm was healed again, skin covering the wound near perfectly, and Tommy closed his eyes, slumping against Benrey. He shifted Tommy around to lean on Gordon, glancing over at Coomer. </p><p>“Uh, I have... no clue how to help your arm there...” </p><p>“Oh, it’s alright. I can’t actually feel it, and the two that know anything about them are a bit indisposed. I can handle a useless arm for awhile.” Coomer smiled over at Benrey, who nodded a bit, and settled against the wall next to Coomer. </p><p>“So... we gonna tell Feetman he was using sweet voice this entire time?” He asked, and Coomer’s head thunked against the glass of the tube as he laughed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So uh, this is the end of this story, but it will not be the end of this verse! I'll throw some one shots at it here and there and I'm just!! Really happy with this! I really like it! It's the longest thing I have written in awhile and I just! Love it! Thank you for joining me on this journey that was really only nine days (holy shit I don't think I've ever written this fast) and I'm just! I love it.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I will totally write another chapter of this if you guys are interested!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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